Gérald Darmanin, an asset and a political burden for Emmanuel Macron

We know it since Bonaparte, the best defense is the attack! Despite the fiasco of the security system, Saturday evening, Gérald Darmanin does not budge: it is the fault of the English! And too bad if this tactic angers Downing Street. During a press conference, the Minister of the Interior first assured, Monday, May 30, that this type of incident only occurred during football matches in the presence of English supporters. As early as Saturday evening, he had accused them of having “violent stewards” while most testimonies praise the phlegm of the mistreated English. Above all, Gérald Darmanin continues to denounce a “massive traffic” 30,000 to 40,000 counterfeit paper notes which would be the cause of the disorder.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon denounces the bankruptcy of the law enforcement strategy and again castigates police brutality. Marine Le Pen accuses the Minister of the Interior of lying and overwhelming British supporters to better exonerate the packages of those whom the far right calls the “suburban thugs”.

Is the Minister of the Interior too firm or too lax? He tried to extricate himself from this uncomfortable position on Monday. On the one hand by affirming that the decision of the prefect to release checkpoints made it possible to avoid deaths. On the other hand, by recognizing “offences” but pointing out that 40 of the 52 people arrested for theft or assault were French.

In these times of legislative campaign that the Head of State would like to extinguish as much as possible, he is a concern because he cleaves and can encourage left-wing opponents to go to the polls. But in the presidential election, the ballot boxes tilted to the right. However, Emmanuel Macron failed to land a new heavyweight from this camp. On the contrary, with the promotions of Elisabeth Borne and Pap Ndiaye and renewed commitments on the environment, he seemed to look more to the left. Gérald Darmanin is therefore more essential than ever to rebalance the majority. The proof, the head of state maintained it place Beauvau.

He should remember, however, that it is never healthy, either for the executive or for the climate of public debate, to start depending too much on the Minister of the Interior.