It is 11:45 a.m., Friday, February 3, and Meyer Habib will soon no longer be a deputy of the French Republic. The Constitutional Council has just announced that it invalidates its election in the June 2022 legislative elections, in the eighth constituency of French people living abroad, which notably covers Israel and Italy.
The Council condemns “irregularities and maneuvers [qui] were, in view of the difference in votes noted in the second round, likely to alter the sincerity of the vote”. These methods allowed the elected representative of the Les Républicains (LR) group to win with a tiny lead: barely 193 votes. Her rival, Deborah Abisror-De Lieme, of the presidential Renaissance party, had filed a request with the Council.
In a reception room of the Hôtel du collectionneur, located a stone’s throw from Parc Monceau, Mr. Habib stands with his eyes lowered on his phone. With a gloomy face, drawn features, a blue tie tied on his white shirt (the colors of the Israeli flag), he is seated in the place of honor, to the right of his friend Benyamin Netanyahu, facing about sixty men of French business. He doesn’t say a word.
“If France abandons me, I do not exclude anything”
As on every visit, Meyer Habib guides the Israeli Prime Minister and his wife, Sarah, to Paris. He did not attend the dinner at the Elysee Palace the day before, during which Emmanuel Macron received Mr. Netanyahu, back in power since December 2022. But Meyer Habib got active on Friday morning through the corridors of their hotel, with these businessmen and representatives of the Jewish community. He constantly entered and left the salons, made presentations, translation, commentary. He is a bit of a factotum, a bit of an intercessor with the undisputed leader of the Israeli right, who will spend Shabbat in Paris. An intimate.
Ten days ago, Mr. Habib spent two hours with Mr. Netanyahu in Israel. The two men have since talked a lot on the phone. As the Council’s decision approached, Mr. Habib told those around him that his friend had proposed to him, two years ago, to make him Israel’s ambassador to Paris. “If France abandons me, I do not exclude anything”, he said, emotional as always, suggesting that the position could be offered to him again. It is to be taken since the ambassador Yaël German slammed the door in January. Appointed by the ephemeral centrist Prime Minister Yaïr Lapid, close to Mr. Macron, she does not want to serve under the alliance that Mr. Netanyahu has forged with far-right and religious parties.
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