behind the scenes, the “unbearable” wait for the reshuffle

The complete government of Gabriel Attal is still not detailed, Thursday morning. From the corridors of Matignon to those of the National Assembly, the wait exasperates the political sphere.

Another failure… Thursday February 8, the entire government, promised “in the next few hours” after the Council of Ministers on Wednesday morning, is ultimately still not announced. It gets stuck and the wait makes more than one person break down. “Intolerable” : even in the corridors of Matignon, the word is released.

On Wednesday, advisors went to scout around Pas-de-Calais to prepare for Gabriel Attal’s second visit to flood victims, without knowing if it would be for nothing: the scenario “reshuffle Wednesday evening, seminar with the entire team [le lendemain] morning then pitch immediately” took on the water. All this was before François Bayrou’s declarations. Expected in recent days to re-enter the government after his departure in 2017, the president of MoDem affirmed at the start of the evening that he had declined the post of Minister of the Armed Forces, but also that of Minister of Education, for lack of ” deep agreement on the policy to follow.

The “super ministers” are still waiting for reinforcement. Example: since the beginning of the week, the law on the security of local elected officials has been examined in the National Assembly. It could have been carried by Dominique Faure, the former minister responsible for local authorities. Christophe Béchu and Éric Dupond-Moretti are forced to stick to it. “Transversal files are complicated to manage”, confides an already renowned minister. Still no one in charge of housing, transportation, health.

The feeling of an “absolute lack of respect”

And again, the famous are not the most unfortunate. Because there are those to whom the Elysée had told during the first round of nominations not to worry, that the rest would come within ten days maximum. But the agricultural crisis froze everything. In the process, François Bayrou was released and the situation changed. So, they wait in between: not officially responsible for handling current affairs, but obliged to take a look at the files that their former interlocutors no longer know who to address.

For their colleagues, it’s worse. They sometimes took a little vacation, but now, failing to obtain information, they have to keep busy. Finally, there is the fate of substitutes in the National Assembly. 21 ministers of the Borne government were elected deputies in June 2022. Their 21 substitutes all received an email on Sunday at 11:59 p.m.: they will no longer be deputies if the incumbents return. With each hour that passes, exasperation rises with the feeling of “absolute lack of respect”. “It is obvious that the president is procrastinating,” one of them laments, wondering if Emmanuel Macron, with “a little perversity“, don’t take it “a certain pleasure”.