It is 7:57 pm on Tuesday, June 22, 2009. In a few minutes, the new revamped government "Fillon III" will be announced. The telephone of Yves Jégo, Secretary of State for the Overseas Territories, rings. "Hello Yves, do you know we are reshuffling the government?" questions Claude Gueant, secretary general of the Elysée. I have the delicate task of announcing that you are no longer part of it. "
"Three minutes later, I see him appear on TV to announce the new list. Fifteen minutes later, ushers arrive in my office with boxes. Right after, your replacement calls you to set the appointment for the handover, ”recalls the former centrist minister. "Very brutal. He didn't expect it. He must also leave his official apartment again, with his family. “The following week, I was pushing a shopping cart at Ikéa to buy a kitchen for my new apartment. It makes me humble… ”breathes Jégo.
The specter of a reshuffle has hung over the government of Edouard Philippe for several weeks. If from the outside, we imagine this game of musical chairs as an oiled and rational mechanism, the backstage reveals something else entirely. "It is a Chinese torture, especially when it is announced well in advance ..." confides a member of cabinet in post, who worked in several ministries. “It is often used as a stress management tool, it makes people vulnerable. Some people no longer knew where they lived, ”recalls Cécile Duflot, Minister of Housing under Holland between 2012 and 2014.
"Sometimes you can come back by chance ..."
A reshuffle is also an intense campaign behind the scenes to hope to win a Moroccan, the Grail in a political career. “There is the in , as at the Avignon festival: people start doing a lot of mornings, signing stands. And there is the off : appointments, calls, texts ... ", decrypts a former close to Manuel Valls. "We see them, those who are agitated in the media, or those who hide behind themselves to avoid mistakes," laughs Franck Louvrier, former advisor to Sarkozy at the Elysée Palace. Manuel Valls, at the moment, it's as big as a house… ”“ Jean-Vincent Placé took a long time to return to government, because he did too much. It was becoming a joke, ”recalls Gaspard Gantzer, adviser from Holland.
The composition of the list is also an unnamed puzzle. “It is a complicated exercise in terms of political, territorial and gender balances. You can't have five Bretons for example… ”says the adviser to a former socialist minister. "Sometimes you can come back by chance ... because a rather radical man from the southwest is missing!" "Illustrates Jean-Pierre Raffarin, three years at Matignon sous Chirac. It is also possible to put "a secretary of state in the paws" of a minister who is wary, continues Raffarin.
On the day of the announcement, everyone watches their phone carefully, making sure not to run out of battery. Knowing that he could return to government, in March 2008, Yves Jego spent the day "locked in his office" of the Assembly, "while waiting for it to ring". The ministers compulsively call each other: "And you, do you have any news?"
Employees, collateral victims
But everything can also change a few minutes before the official announcement. “There are pencil lines that are made until the last moment. Ministers who find themselves without a ministry a few minutes before the announcement, ”says Louvrier. Rumor has it that Frédéric de Saint-Sernin, Secretary of State for Regional Planning under Raffarin, learned of his eviction from reading the press release, on TV. "No, Dominique de Villepin had called me before", assures the interested party, who does not deny that it was "extremely difficult" for him. Another cruel anecdote: the Minister of Culture Fleur Pellerin learned of her eviction in February 2016 while she was in the Senate to defend a text of law.
"The day before, you were full of hope, and the next day you pack your bags," sums up Roger Karoutchi, who arrived from the State Secretariat for Relations with the Parliament in June 2009. "It is always violent. We go from entrepreneur to unemployed in a few hours. You leave with a handshake, you are forced to greet your successor with a smile… ”observes Brice Hortefeux, claiming that he left the Immigration Department in February 2011 without bitterness. "There are some who take years to get over it," says Cécile Duflot, who wishes to emphasize that "the most violent is for the Minister's staff" who all find themselves "on the street".
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"You have to integrate the risk, it's a precarious environment", underlines a minister's collaborator, who recalls a golden rule, before a reshuffle: "The only thing we know is that 'we do not know. "
