why and to do what?

Emmanuel Macron should soon clarify his intentions. His wishes have not dispelled the mystery surrounding the “meeting with the Nation” promised for January but rumors of a reshuffle persist.

The idea would first be to close a difficult page after pensions and the political crisis around the immigration law, to also change a plethoric and disunited government while ministers from the left wing have openly displayed their divergences in recent weeks. Emmanuel Macron would like to consolidate a united team, capable of launching the European battle and opening a new page, that of rebound, in this year marked by the Olympic Games. Now to do what, with what course, and on what project? The president should detail all of this later in January.

And with who ? One name particularly comes up to replace Élisabeth Borne at Matignon, that of Sébastien Lecornu, the Minister of the Armed Forces. For what ? His main quality is that he has no known ambition for 2027. Emmanuel Macron would not take the risk of promoting a minister who is openly too ambitious, the challenge being to avoid the rest of his mandate being parasitized by his inheritance. Another asset for Sébastien Lecornu, and it would be a break with the previous hosts of Matignon, although he comes from the right, he was able to integrate the first circle and gain the confidence of the president after having organized the big debate, in 2019.

Suitable for some, useless for others

He is also a mad politician, who masters the political game and speaks the parliamentary language, a fan of three-cushion billiard shots, with the air of not touching it and without ever losing a certain roundness. “It’s the Third and Fourth Republic in the Fifth”summarizes a close friend of the president who sees in him the right man, the cunning and affable minister who could make the link with the right in a context of relative majority.

If he ticks a lot of boxes, he has some weaknesses: his lack of notoriety, the fact that he is useful to the armies in a period of war, and then Sébastien Lecornu would not bring the majority that Emmanuel Macron lacks. He would bring him nothing, squeak the skeptics or the envious who point out his hidden side: have you ever heard him go to the front to defend the president in bad weather? Asking the question is already answering it. In any case if his name is pushed by some, from there to imagining him named, there is a step that should not be taken too quickly. “The last time Lecornu was Prime Minister, then Le Maire, then Darmanin, and it ended with the reappointment of Borne, so we can also find ourselves with the vice prefect of Oise at the last minute”laughs a friend of the president.

The only certainty is that Emmanuel Macron likes to keep several cards in his deck, when he can. And beyond the casting, the president must also decide the moment: today no one knows which team will meet at the first council of ministers of the year, scheduled for January 10.