“Macronie at a standstill”, “end of reign”, Titanic… On the left as on the right, the reactions fuse after the announcement of the casting of the Borne 2 government, Monday July 4th. A government which has 42 ministers and secretaries of state, in which parity is respected, but where appointments are unbalanced. Out of 16 full-time ministers, there are only five women. Four of the five sovereign ministries are occupied by men. An imbalance which makes the number 2 of the Socialist Party, Corinne Narassiguin, say that the Prime Minister “is used to to hide the relegation of women to secretarial positions of state“.
This redesign has, for some, an air of deja vu. “Nothing new under the gray skies of the government (…) The macronie at a standstill”, quips the rebellious MP Clémentine Autain on Twitter. Like the elected representative of Seine-Saint-Denis, the other executives of La France insoumise do not mince their words. “There are obviously few volunteers to climb aboard the titanic“comments Manuel Bompard, the number 2 of the party, about the return of former ministers to the government.
The deputy Les Républicains du Haut-Rhin Raphaël Schellenberger denounces on franceinfo “a government of macronists, by macronists, for macronists”. His colleague Pierre-Henri Dumont evokes “a government that looks more like the end of a reign than the start of a five-year term”. Same feeling with the socialist deputy of Calvados Arthur Delaporte, on franceinfo: “It’s a government of openness towards what we could consider as the presidential minority. It’s macrono-macronist.”
The Ministry of Ecological Transition, attributed to Christophe Béchu, is demoted from fifth to tenth place in the protocol order. The profile of the new minister is not unanimous. As senator Les Républicains, he voted against the ban on neonicotinoids in 2016. “We cannot say that the issues of the ecological emergency inspired this nomination in any way”comments the former Minister of the Environment and current Green MP Delphine Batho.
The abolition of the Overseas Ministry aroused reactions from all sides. It passes under the bosom of the Ministry of the Interior, still piloted by Gérald Darmanin, with a delegated minister, Jean-François Carenco. “How not to see the contempt, the outrage, the colonial reference?” asks Communist MP Elsa Faucillon on Twitter. Marine Le Pen denounces “a meaningful decision” who “will obviously be very badly felt overseas”. For the boss of the National Rally, this change is “surely to punish our overseas compatriots for having ‘badly voted’“.
This is one of the most important positions with the seventh wave of Covid and the emergency crisis, the Ministry of Health returns to François Braun. Emergency doctor and president of Samu-Urgences de France since 2014, he led the “flash mission” on “unscheduled care” commissioned by Emmanuel Macron. “This appointment is a real provocation”reacts Christophe Prudhomme, emergency physician and spokesperson for the Association of Emergency Physicians of France (AMUF). “Mr. Braun is not, in our opinion, someone responsible, reasonable”, adds the doctor. He predicts “a revolt in the world of health and in the population”.
The only decision hailed by the opposition is the departure of Damien Abad from the Ministry of Solidarity. Keeping the LR deputy in government became impossible after the multiple accusations of rape and attempted rape. “It’s a strong signal sent to women”, is “rejoiced” MP Nupes Sandrine Rousseau on franceinfo. The leader of the Insoumis in the National Assembly, Mathilde Panot welcomes the end of a “aberration”. For her, Damien Abad “should never have been named” to the government.