During the Epiphany cake ceremony at the Élysée, Emmanuel Macron leaves nothing to show about a possible reshuffle

On Friday, Emmanuel Macron presided over the Epiphany cake ceremony at the Élysée, as he does every year, in front of an audience of bakers, while rumors of a possible reshuffle agitate the government.

While the government is hanging on the hypothesis of a possible reshuffle, Emmanuel Macron acts as if nothing had happened, giving the feeling of a gap between the atmosphere displayed at the Élysée and the lethargy in the ministries. The head of state, who chose to postpone the Council of Ministers scheduled for Wednesday until next week to give himself time, showed nothing in front of the artisan bakers present in the community hall of the Élysée.

All smiles, with a playful air, he even allows himself to take sides in a very tense debate: “Fortunately, the baguette does not have the problem of pain au chocolat! Depending on the area, there is no debate as to whether it is pain au chocolat or chocolatine. At home, it is pain au chocolat chocolate, I must say!”, he says to the laughter of the assembly. The reshuffle hypotheses which agitate his ministers seem far away.

As if nothing had happened, the president talks about inflation which, he says, should ease in 2024. He also quotes the Minister of Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, present in the room, and assures him : “We are going to launch massive simplification work for all economic sectors, in particular artisans, traders and the agricultural world! And to say that everything which is not explicitly prohibited becomes authorized, to shorten deadlines, to simplify things. We need a France of doers!”

In ministries, pending activity

Emmanuel Macron projects himself, as if no ax existed: he lingers with the bakers, and distributes the slices of cake himself, without beans, let us point out, because there is no king at the Élysée! A president who takes all his time, and who takes great care to show it. Because behind the scenes, the atmosphere is very different, it’s impossible to know what the next few hours will bring. The communicators at the Élysée remain unfathomable. We just know that the Head of State met Gérald Darmanin on Thursday, that a meeting with Bruno Le Maire is in the pipeline. But for the rest, neither date nor scale. “Maybe there won’t be anything.”even someone close to the president said ironically.

In reality in the ministries, activity is somewhat at a standstill. The wishes of ministers, such as Gabriel Attal or Bruno Le Maire, appear pending, as do interviews in the media. As for Elisabeth Borne, her team gives the lie, “but the reality is that we no longer plan ahead”, recognizes a relative. The next few hours may be particularly long to wait in the ministries.