The affair was played Thursday, July 2, a little before 8 pm, during a tête-à-tête in the office of the Head of State. "By mutual agreement", whispering the respective entourages of Emmanuel Macron and Edouard Philippe, to signify this amicable divorce at the top of the State. An hour later, the one who is still the head of government for a few hours returns to Matignon, spans the marble steps which lead him to his office, and has a beer with a handful of collaborators. "He just said to us: Here, it's over. I will no longer be Prime Minister tomorrow , says a witness to the scene. Then he quickly went home to spend the rest of the evening with his wife and three children. Without any bitterness ”.
The story between the two men will have lasted three years "quite exceptional, incredibly rich", greeted Edouard Philippe passing the torch to Jean Castex. But three years heckled by an unprecedented succession of crises: the Benalla affair, the yellow vests, the pension reform and finally the Covid-19 pandemic. These files have often put the Macron-Philippe couple to the test. "Everything has been done to ensure that this separation takes place in the best possible conditions," swears the presidential entourage, speaking of interview "warm, cordial and friendly" Thursday evening. The fact that Edouard Philippe agreed to lead a mission for the reconstruction of the majority is moreover perceived as "a good indicator" on the side of the Palace.
"He had known his fate sealed for a little while"
It prevents. The rupture seemed to be over for several days. With unmistakable signals, like these remarks made on June 16 in the newspaper Paris-Normandie. A candidate for Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), the Prime Minister noted that Emmanuel Macron "knows what I can do and what I cannot do".
A first mark of possible emancipation, confirmed the next day when he appeared relaxed in the front page of Paris Match, under the title: "The unknown who governs France". Initiative little appreciated on the side of the Elysee. Even more when he declared on June 23, during a televised debate on France 3 regions, that his objective, "is to be mayor of Le Havre". "If it happens very quickly, it will be fine," he adds. “My deep conviction is that he had known his fate sealed for a little while. So he felt a little freewheeling, “confesses a relative.
"He was also a brake"
For Emmanuel Macron, who wants to take "a new path" and reinvent himself in the run-up to the presidential race of 2022, Edouard Philippe was clearly no longer part of the equation. “He managed the crisis well, but he was also a brake. He's an extremely serious person, but he can block things. As with the pivotal age or the fact of organizing a vote on deconfinement in the Assembly, for example, it could be very rigid at once, ”testifies support from the Head of State. Others recall the episode of 80 km / h, or the time taken to, finally, backtrack on the carbon tax, at the origin of the yellow vests. “The president wanted more agility, more ease, slips a relative. He wants two useful years. Impotence is something that terrifies Macron. "
Others also advance the role of Benoît Ribadeau-Dumas, influential chief of staff of Matignon, from the Council of State like Philippe, and whose weight would have become too important in the decision-making apparatus of power in recent months. About ten days ago, a visitor to the president explained the facts to him as follows: “All the polls for the past fifteen days show that you are in the center right. So you need a center-right Prime Minister. But you have to send Edouard Philippe away… unless he separates from Ribadeau-Dumas ”. " It is unfair. Benoît is a great clerk of the state, Edouard would never have agreed to stay on the condition of separating from him ”, returns a LREM deputy.
PODCAST. Macron-Philippe, how the crisis has strained their relationships
And then, with such a popular Prime Minister, to the point of seriously overshadowing him in all opinion polls, could the Head of State really maintain this team? “Throughout the crisis, it was the president who made the right decisions, but his Prime Minister who reaped the benefits, observes a strategist at the Elysée Palace. It annoyed Macron a lot. "