the second part of the reshuffle raises many questions

If Gabriel Attal has been in Matignon for three weeks, his government is still not complete. Full-time ministers, sometimes gigantic portfolios, but no delegate ministers or secretaries of state for certain sectors in crisis who are growing impatient.

“It’s really enough to get your brain in knots!”, admits an advisor to the executive. The government reshuffle looks like a puzzle. Gabriel Attal has become Matignon’s tenant for almost a month, but ministers are missing while others have inherited gigantic portfolios. The additional list of delegate ministers and secretaries of state should be given in “beginning of the week” next time, people whisper, but sectors in crisis are worried.

Housing, health… Urgent files on fire

First of all: housing. Who will be the new minister? “There is none, and yet the crisis is already here”, worries a member of the government. Transport and health professions are also becoming impatient. Another burning issue: should Amélie Oudéa-Castéra be replaced? The Minister of National Education, Youth, Sports and the Olympic Games seems to subscribe to controversies, but supported, at least officially, by Emmanuel Macron. “The media and popular court, the president has had enough”explains one of his lieutenants.

The puzzle does not end there: how to satisfy François Bayrou and Édouard Philippe, the two allies of the majority offended by the appointment of full ministers and who believe they have not been treated well enough? The mayor of Pau, historic ally of the Head of State, will be decided on his fate on Monday February 5: the judgment must be rendered after his trial in the case of the MoDem assistants in the European Parliament. Some imagine him recovering National Education, if he were cleared. As for the mayor of Le Havre, boss of Horizons, he has remained discreet since the arrival of Gabriel Attal in Matignon. “He didn’t jump to the ceiling, he pleaded to keep Élisabeth Borne”admits a relative.

A government with a maximum of thirty members

The list of delegated ministers and secretaries of state is also the subject of a struggle for influence within the government, because their number says a lot about the influence and importance of the responsible minister. Instructions were however given by Emmanuel Macron himself: maximum around thirty members in the final version of the government, to maintain this format “tight”. This will therefore force, in fact, the most greedy ministries to tighten their belts.

For example, in the last Borne team, Bercy had four delegate ministers, ecological transition three with two additional secretaries of state, an equation that is untenable today. “What do we do with the sea and biodiversity?”wonders aloud a minister familiar with the discussions. “We will also have to console the disappointed”anticipates another.

Finally, what place for those who until now embodied a left-wing sensibility, like Clément Beaune, Patrice Vergriete or Olivier Dussopt? Will early supporters Olivia Grégoire, Sabrina Agresti-Roubache and Roland Lescure be renewed?

The rest of the government casting has been released in bits and pieces in recent weeks. In addition to Agnès Pannier-Runacher at Health, Emmanuel Macron himself spilled the beans by suggesting that Stanislas Guérini was going to return to the Civil Service, with the backdrop also of the appointment before the beginning of March of the head of the Renaissance list for the European elections. At the risk of this reshuffle being a little disappointing, support from the Head of State prefers to warn: “We don’t just have Rachida Dati in reserve.”