What to read between the lines? It’s an innocuous sentence pronounced last week by Gérald Darmanin: “II calculated that if I had to stay until the Olympic Games, since this is roughly the roadmap given to me by the President of the Republic, I would have done 4 years at the Ministry of the Interior”. The minister who therefore explains to police unions that Emmanuel Macron would have given him a roadmap until 2024. Normally, no minister does not publicly formalize such agreements.
The formula and the syntax are quite clear: Darmanin does not seem to imagine Place Beauvau after 2024. Asked, the Elysée responds, embarrassed, that the Paris Olympics are a “important deadline“… Difficult to justify the ambitions of a minister.
This date of 2024, Gérald Darmanin is not the only one to have it in mind. Bruno Le Maire also talks about it, but in a small committee. For the two ministers, it’s the same idea: barring a major political crisis by then, 2024 will be the turning point of the five-year term. There will have been the European elections as well as the Olympics. Emmanuel Macron will begin the second part of his last five-year term. A configuration that opens up prospects three years before the 2027 presidential election…
2024 is also the date that Emmanuel Macron himself imposed during a dinner at the beginning of September, asking his troops for unfailing cohesion until then. Message received in Beauvau and Bercy where the entourages assume this calendar. “In 2024, questions will arise“, confirms a close friend of Bruno Le Maire. “2024 will be a moment of truth“, adds a relative of Gérald Darmanin.
Gérald Darmanin and Bruno Le Maire, two ministers, from the right, two political heavyweights who gauge each other from a distance. They both took responsibilities within the new Renaissance party. It is also there that their loyalty will be closely observed. “No naivety on our part, Bruno and Gérald have an agenda, but it is better to have them inside than outside”, specifies a minister invested in the party. “All the suitors who are in government will be accountable for Emmanuel Macron’s balance sheet”, recalls all the same a close friend of the president. Understand: if Macron fails, so will they.
By 2024, no head should therefore exceed too much. But after ? Everyone will be able to express their ambitions, and they will not be alone. Edouard Philippe is also getting ready and he is no longer constrained by loyalty games within the government.