Brice Blondel, who has just left his post of prefect of the Hautes-Pyrénées, will become Emmanuel Macron's chief of staff replacing François-Xavier Lauch, who left for the Ministry of the Interior, we learned from the Élysée Thursday.
Aged 48, he joined the palace as part of a partial renewal of the entourage of the president, with whom he will occupy a key position since the chief of staff manages his agenda and organizes his travels.
Deputy Director of the Minister of Overseas Territories
This enarque was since December 2018 prefect of Hautes-Pyrénées, a department dear to Emmanuel Macron who, as a child, spent his holidays with his maternal grandparents in Bagnères-de-Bigorre. "It is particularly within the framework of these functions that the president was able to appreciate his qualities", one indicates in the presidential entourage.
Brice Blondel was previously deputy chief of staff to the French overseas minister, Annick Girardin. Before joining the ENA in 2005, he began his career as director of the educational action center in Épinay-sur-Seine, in Seine-Saint-Denis.
Team changes before the start of the school year
The changes follow one another at the highest level of the State, before the return scheduled for August 24. In office since the start of the five-year term, the former chief of staff François-Xavier Lauch became deputy chief of staff to Gérald Darmanin at the Ministry of the Interior on the occasion of the recent change of government.
The departure of Philippe Grangeon, special advisor to Emmanuel Macron, is expected in September while communication advisor Joseph Zimet could also leave the Elysee and be replaced by Clément Leonarduzzi, president of Publicis Consultants, according to concordant sources. No announcement has yet been made by the Presidency.
In addition, the vice-admiral of the squadron Jean-Philippe Rolland took on August 1 the post of Chief of Staff of the President, replacing Admiral Bernard Rogel, who had held the post of "CEMP" since. July 2016.
