Marc Fesneau is a funny bird. In political ornithology, we could even speak of a rare species. Realize: what politician, after twenty years of battles and almost as many electoral failures, has voluntarily given up the Grail of a ministerial post? Not many people. We are in June 2017, François Bayrou and Marielle de Sarnez, just entered the government, are forced to resign to defend themselves against accusations of illegal financing of the MoDem.
Phone call from the mayor of Pau to the person concerned, deputy for Loir-et-Cher. “If you want, can you be Minister of Agriculture?” “ Agriculture is precisely what has always fascinated him. But Marc Fesneau says no. “I didn’t feel it, it had gone a little too fast for me. I had just been elected member of the MoDem, I wanted to lead this group that I had helped to constitute in the National Assembly. “ He says that, without pushing himself off the collar. He will wait a big year to finally enter the government as Minister responsible for relations with Parliament. Since then, Marc Fesneau, just 50 years old, has become a piece as discreet as it is essential to the Macronian ecosystem.
Expected at the turn
The former secretary general of the MoDem has just been appointed number 2 of the party, to replace Marielle de Sarnez, the partner of François Bayrou, who died in January. Clearly, here he is designated official heir of Béarnais. As a probable future candidate for the head of the Center-Val de Loire region, he is one of the rare – not to say unique – chances of victory for the majority in the next regional ones.
Finally, as Minister Delegate for Relations with Parliament, he became the government’s “deminer”. And God knows that the debates on the climate law, and its 7,000 amendments, which have just started in the Assembly, for three weeks, will not be easy. Recognize that that is a lot for a man, whose name and face do not mean anything to most French people.
No one would have bet on such a trajectory. Gilles Le Gendre, the first. The former boss of the group La République en Marche (LRM) in the Assembly still remembers his response to Edouard Philippe very well when the Prime Minister announced to him, on October 16, 2018, that he had just appointed Marc Fesneau, a Modem, therefore, to deal with relations with the two assemblies. “I tell him, you can’t do that, it’s absurd not to name a member of En Marche!” in such a strategic position for the majority ”, remembers Le Gendre. And to add: “It was silly because it turned out to be a great choice. “
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