“I am in action”, she insists. Asked about her staying at Matignon and the fact that she could be “on borrowed time”Elisabeth Borne dodged the subject, Thursday, June 23 during an interview with LCI: “I’m not asking myself those kinds of questions.” However, the Prime Minister was more than weakened by the results of the legislative elections, which did not allow the presidential camp to obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly.
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During his speech on Wednesday evening, Emmanuel Macron did not even bother to mention the name of the head of government. Traditionally, the day after legislative elections, the tenant of Matignon submits his resignation and the President of the Republic chooses to rename him or her in the process to renew his confidence in him. This time, Emmanuel Macron chose to refuse this resignation, officially for technical questions in order to allow the government to continue to manage current affairs.
Unofficially, everyone is asking the question of a change of head within the executive to allow the majority to broaden its bases in the Assembly. The “Prime Minister’s office, it’s a CDD, I confirm it to you”, has also recognized Elisabeth Borne on LCI. In this undermined context, we explain to you how the head of government is trying to regain the initiative so as not to be overwhelmed.
She responds to attacks
The president of the MoDem, François Bayrou, no longer hides it: he was not convinced by the appointment of Elisabeth Borne as Prime Minister and by her technocratic profile. For weeks, he has been repeating to his interlocutors that Matignon must be occupied by a more political profile. Asked Wednesday on France Inter on the maintenance of Elisabeth Borne at the head of the government, the mayor of Pau chose to return the ball to the President of the Republic. Before estimating: “The times require that the Prime Minister or the Prime Minister be political, that we do not have the feeling that it is the technique which rules the country.”
“I do not feel targeted by this criticism”reacted the interested party on LCI Thursday evening, specifying that she had “had the opportunity to explain himself with François Bayrou”. “I don’t know what ‘technical’ means, continued the former Minister of Labor. So ‘technical’, it’s the idea that I would be locked up in my office behind piles of files and that I wouldn’t be able to meet the French people, that I wouldn’t experience their difficulties, (…) that I wouldn’t work with deputies, it’s the complete opposite of who I am.”
She shows that she stays at work
Elisabeth Borne wishes to give the image of a Prime Minister to the task, who does not stop despite the institutional uncertainty which weighs on the Assembly. The head of government went to a gas management center on Wednesday, accompanied by the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. She gave an update on the situation in France did not hesitate to project herself, notably by announcing the extension of the tariff shield on gas prices “until the end of the year”.
I made a point of going today to the national gas management center alongside@AgnesRunacher to ensure that all measures are taken to guarantee gas supplies and protect French people and businesses from rising prices. pic.twitter.com/p88qokxgP4
— Elisabeth BORNE (@Elisabeth_Borne) June 23, 2022
Elisabeth Borne also met with her ministers on Wednesday afternoon. She has also received the support of several of them in recent days. “Elisabeth Borne, I can assure you, is at her post morning, noon, and evening and she makes us work a lot”declared in particular the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, from the National Assembly. “I obviously support the Prime Minister and we are not in questions of people”assured the Minister Delegate for Europe, Clément Beaune.
The head of government will be on all fronts next week, with a busy agenda: a working meeting with her ministers on purchasing power, a crisis meeting on the epidemic situation, an exchange with the head of the Ukrainian government. about French aid to kyiv, or even a trip to the field scheduled for Thursday, June 30. “She is hard at work in her duties as Prime Minister and continues her interviews to set the roadmaps for her ministers and ensure the proper functioning of the State”assures his firm to franceinfo.
She splits the armor
The Prime Minister’s first speech, during the transfer of power, caught the eye, especially when she dedicated his appointment at “all the little girls”. But since then, her lack of breath has been highlighted on several occasions, whether during the between-two rounds of the legislative elections, when she was responsible for remotivating the candidates of the majority in the running, or on the evening of the second round. “It was a ‘cata’, she read her text without raising her head, there was no spontaneity, she looked like a prefect”confides a deputy to franceinfo.
On LCI, Elisabeth Borne sought to reveal herself a little more. Her father ended her life when she was a teenager and she grew up with her mother, who had few resources. “It is shocking for an 11-year-old girl to lose her father in the conditions in which I lost him”, explained this pupil of the nation. She also confided that these hardships had undoubtedly pushed her to build a shell. “Maybe I don’t know how to express my emotions. It must be true in my public life, let’s say it may be true in my personal life as well. I think this shielding, maybe, will a bit far, yes”she admitted.
It is still seeking to strengthen the majority
Beyond the battle of opinion, Elisabeth Borne is also waging a more political battle. Since the start of the week, both the Elysée and Matignon have been making numerous phone calls. “Indeed, I had people on the phone”, confirms to franceinfo an LR deputy considered to be constructive. To swell the ranks of the majority, the executive is looking for reinforcements. In the viewfinder in particular: the twenty or so Les Républicains deputies who preferred the young Julien Dive rather than the hard right of Olivier Marleix, as part of the vote to elect the new boss of the LR deputies. Matignon has also planned to continue the interviews next week “with parliamentarians from all sides”.
But apart from individual poaching which is currently very insufficient, the majority could try to form two “floating groups” in the Assembly, reports The Parisian, one on its left wing, the other on its right wing. This would allow the government to ensure the presence of sufficiently benevolent groups to vote on the texts on a case-by-case basis. On LCI, the Prime Minister has in any case shown herself “very confident” on the fact of “find deputies to vote on texts because we have integrated their proposals”.
To try to find the best way, Elisabeth Borne received on Thursday and Friday all the group presidents of the Assembly, from LFI to the RN. She probably tried to sound out the different political forces to find out if she was going to engage her responsibility, as demanded by La France insoumise, as part of her general policy speech, which she must hold on July 5 before the National Assembly. . For now, she has admitted not having “really cut that point”.