Municipal: Sibeth Ndiaye would not be “very surprised” if Edouard Philippe showed up at Le Havre

An outing that should make people talk. Invited this Friday morning by Jean-Jacques Bourdin on RMC / BFMTV, Sibeth Ndiaye ventured to evoke the future of Edouard Philippe. Because when asked if the Prime Minister was going to run in the next municipal elections in Le Havre, the city where he was mayor from 2010 until he entered Matignon in May 2017, the government spokesperson explained: "I would not be very surprised by a possible choice of attachment that he could make vis-à-vis this city ”.

Municipal: Sibeth Ndiaye "would not be very surprised" to see Edouard Philippe candidate in Le Havre pic.twitter.com/DWoSaw8sGf

A short sentence which comes at a time of tension for the Prime Minister, who for several weeks has been responsible for passing the pension reform and therefore opposes since December 5 last unions and part of public opinion.

"He speaks with an immoderate love of his city"

Sibeth Ndiaye describes the head of government as being “someone who is fairly serious and not very emotional on a daily basis […] But we feel that when he talks about Le Havre, there is a passion, there is something very particular, which vibrates ”. For several months now, those who "speak with immoderate love for their city, where they have their roots", according to the government spokesperson, have been sending signals about a possible candidacy in their electoral fiefdom.

This hypothesis - whether he will have to quickly validate it or not, since he himself asked the members of his government to declare themselves for the municipal elections by January 31 - does not mean that Edouard Philippe will leave office. Because even if he went into battle, he could obviously do so without leading the LREM list in Le Havre. And even if he decided to do so, the rule that the head of government himself laid down stipulates that a minister, and therefore even the Prime Minister, should not resign unless elected to the seat of mayor.

The fact remains that seeing Edouard Philippe campaigning and multiplying the back-and-forth between Seine-Maritime and Paris between now and the polls on March 15 and 22 - while the financing conference for pension reform opens on January 30 and that negotiations should therefore continue - should not facilitate his work with unions.