During the 2017 presidential campaign, this close friend of Alain Juppé wrote a column in Release, where he had a rather hard tooth for the one who had just betrayed François Hollande. How was Edouard Philippe, then largely unknown to the French, on May 15, 2017, appointed Prime Minister by Emmanuel Macron, this newcomer to politics in whom he hardly believed?
It all happened the day after the first round. It is Thierry Solère, now special adviser to Emmanuel Macron, who tells how the two went to join “the enemy”. “The day after the first round, I remember very well, Edouard called me around 10 a.m., and he said to me: ‘I have just had Alexis Kohler, Emmanuel Macron wants to meet you and me at the end of the day’.”
At the same end of the day, the political office of what is still both their party, Les Républicains, is held. “And finally, [Edouard Philippe] almost escapes from the political bureau, which is clearly deciding that they will not support Macron… and he goes to Macron.”
Hidden in the back of a car… with a certain Benalla as bodyguard
The two friends are then secretly picked up by car to join the future president. Edouard Philippe, who especially does not want to be seen, hides his eighty-nine meter under a blanket. “Me, I’m in plaster, in addition, I just broke my leg, and so we’re a little packed… remembers Thierry Solère. It’s Alexandre Benalla, moreover, for the little joke, who is the bodyguard at the front who takes us, and we pass in front of all the journalists who do live duplexes…”
In pole position for a prestigious position, Edouard Philippe admits to having been seized with “funk”. “Finally, the scare… I had a kind of vertigo.” “He’s really stressing out, confides his friend Thierry Solère. He loses weight, he puts his spleen in court-bouillon.”
And when his appointment is effective, the unknown of the French can measure how much he is also of the editorialists of the television sets … and even of his own ministers. “He will not be in competition for charisma with Emmanuel Macron”, predicts Christophe Barbier, who emphasizes “a little Xavier Bertrand side of the poor”. For Jean-François Copé, if the new president made this choice, it is also because he “could reasonably think that Edouard Philippe, little known at the time to the general public, would not take the light from him”.
Excerpt from “Edouard Philippe: Monsieur Loyal or future rival?”, a portrait to see in “Complement of the investigation” on May 19, 2022.
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