Catherine Colonna, the good bet of Emmanuel Macron

The handover ceremony at the Quai d’Orsay between Jean-Yves Le Drian and Catherine Colonna, who therefore becomes the new Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, has taken place. Jean-Yves Le Drian was at the heart of world affairs for more than 10 years, at La Défense but also at the Quai d’Orsay, in Syria, Mali, Algeria, China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Ukraine. . He embodied French diplomacy.

“Emmanuel Macron has therefore chosen the current French ambassador to London. An experienced and rigorous diplomat. But beyond her professional qualities, it is undoubtedly one of the best choices that Emmanuel Macron could make for the Quai d Orsay. First, because the diplomat is no less a fine politician. She became one at the school of Jacques Chirac. The general public really discovered her in 2005 when she was appointed Minister Delegate for European Affairs of the government of Dominique de Villepin”recalls Jean-Christophe Galeazzi.

“Since then, she had resumed her career as a diplomat. Appointed ambassador to Great Britain in 2009, she had to manage the very turbulent period, in the midst of negotiations on Brexit and the conflict over fishing. When we succeed in this tour de force, at least one is noticed or even rewarded. Choice no doubt also relevant because the President of the Republic is currently a little out of touch with the diplomatic corps. He appoints a career diplomat in a ministry in the grip of malaise, where a call for the strike has been launched for June 2. Six unions and a collective of 400 young diplomats are mobilizing to protest against an accumulation of reforms, particularly the one enacting the ‘extinction’, in their own words, of the prestigious diplomatic corps. It will therefore be necessary for Catherine Colonna to re-establish the bonds of dialogue and trust”concludes Jean-Christophe Galeazzi.