EDITORIAL. Sylvie Retailleau or the limits of rebellion within the presidential majority

After Aurélien Rousseau, who resigned from his position in Health, a second minister, Sylvie Retailleau, in charge of Higher Education, presented her resignation. But Emmanuel Macron refused it.

Sylvie Retailleau is angry with a provision of the Immigration law, the one which requires the posting of a deposit by foreign students. But all it took was a conversation with Emmanuel Macron for her to stop slamming the door of the government. The head of state promised to correct this “bad idea”. An episode reported by those close to the minister herself, which illustrates the limits of internal rebellion within the majority.

Tuesday evening, the left-wing ministers met in haste to raise the threat of a collective resignation. The next day, only one took action, Aurélien Rousseau. The others remained silent, with the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak, even assuring that she had never thought of resigning.

Major reshuffle in sight?

Does this mean that Emmanuel Macron has brought the crisis under control? Not necessarily, but let’s say that once the emotion has passed, the rebels hesitate. Most owe everything or almost everything politically to the head of state. No return to their original party, the PS, is imaginable, and we cannot say that this party is attractive. For example, what would become of the ambitious Minister of Transport Clément Beaune, who dreams of becoming mayor of Paris in 2026, if he leaves the government? And then several ministers cling to the opinion of the Constitutional Council, expected at the beginning of January, to see some of the most stinging measures disappear, a horizon that Emmanuel Macron himself dangles for them. At the Elysée, after the president’s television performance on Wednesday evening, we are banking on a return to calm.

Will this appeasement be lasting? Not necessarily. Firstly because speculation about a major government reshuffle at the beginning of January is starting again with a vengeance. A new team which will perhaps be relieved of these real-false rebels from the left who have never really succeeded in having any political influence. But for the executive, the main concern lies with the Assembly. With white-hot opposition, the Nupes and the National Rally of course, but also, now, the Republicans resuscitated by the immigration law, and a relative majority and increasingly fragmented by the appearance of rebels, it’s good where the future of this chaotic five-year term is at stake.