It’s been a few days since the government disappeared: no decision, no travel, no major speech… Since the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, we have had a shadow government.
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Everything is also dependent on the decisions of the re-elected President: political line, new team. Decisions that do not arrive and therefore no one moves. Or rather, no one dares to move.
Since Bruno Le Maire’s blunder on franceinfo on the possible use of 49-3 to pass the pension reform, ministers have been instructed to limit their outings. “It’s when we don’t pay attention that there are problems“, thus lectured Emmanuel Macron during the last Council of Ministers. Message received: missteps are prohibited. And with a few exceptions, it is therefore silence that prevails. “We are in a period of transition“, modestly recognizes a minister.
There are, however, urgent matters to be dealt with. And among the hottest are Ukraine, Europe, preparation for the baccalaureate. Today, they are managed by the ministries in charge. The “current affairs” are therefore dispatched and the State is still running. But there is everything that requires political decisions, and there, it gets stuck. Take purchasing power, inflation, soaring prices in supermarkets: the candidate Macron had promised a “food voucher”, just after his re-election. A project postponed to the summer. “We are not in the period of arbitrations“, recognizes Matignon.
Concretely, files await like the reform of the school or the health: “It’s a fake dish“, pleads an adviser, who slips”As long as we do not know if we are maintained, we do not move“. A somewhat destabilizing situation also for the central administrations which no longer really know who their interlocutors are…
Officially, no: no one knows what will become of him by the end of the week. In most departments, this period is especially stressful. The end of a ministerial adventure is an often brutal ax for ministers and their teams. Only those who have already announced their departure laugh about it.
On social networks, the Minister of Transport, Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, whom some consider an “influencer”, staged himself in the middle of his boxes. But this is an exception. Among the heavyweights, even those who are almost sure to stay, no one admits to preparing their boxes.
So, you have to ask a former right-wing minister to find out how such an expectation is experienced. This Baron LR boasts: “I had all the logistics of the ministry without the hassle. I went to the office whistling“, he smiles. Not sure that many of them are currently whistling in Macronie.
However, there is a Castex government minister who will show up today: Jean-Yves Le Drian is going to Strasbourg for Europe Day, on May 9. From a protocol point of view, the Minister of Foreign Affairs is completely in his place. But his diary reveals that he has never celebrated this holiday since 2017. And his presence makes one cringe…”He invited himself when he does not do any European event. He’s just trying to fit in everywhere“, taunts a member of the Quai d’Orsay.