Chloé Morin is the former Prime Minister's opinion advisor from 2012 to 2017. She currently works as an associate expert with the Jean Jaurès Foundation.
It had to be a stage of reinvention. But it must be admitted that at this stage, it is difficult to distinguish the markers.
Jean Castex, whose ability to prove himself is not here prejudged, in no way embodies the break with his predecessor that we have been promised here and there. Senior official versus senior official. Mayor of a small town versus mayor of a medium town. Man on the right against man on the right… they said, in the entourage of power, the predecessor "too rigid", but this trait of image was not present in the perception of it by the French. Difficult therefore to justify the break by the style alone…
Few symbolic takes, apart from a Bachelot and a Dupond-Moretti.Then came this first batch of government, thirty ministers - when we promised 20 - who mark the choice of operation, rather than incarnation. We can understand, from the image, that reinvention is not synonymous with broadening the political base of macronism. Few sockets on the right or on the left. Few symbolic takes, apart from a Bachelot and a Dupond-Moretti, colorful characters, but who are rather the tree that hides the forest. This cast feels the breakdown of political attractiveness of macronism: where are the LR, PS or EELV defectors that we were promised in half-word ...? For lack of anything better, we have the feeling that the President has favored the appointment of operational ministers, who will not embody much, but whom he no doubt hopes they will be able to "keep" their administration, transform his promises into concrete actions .
No reinvention by the casting therefore. No more on the roadmap, if we judge by the tracks outlined by the President last week in his interview. It remains to be seen whether the reinvention will relate to the method of government: less sectarianism in the way of approaching parliamentary dialogue? For this, it will be necessary to watch for Jean Castex's first steps.
If this reshuffle hardly resembles a reinvention, it does not resemble the return to the sources of the macronism so much hoped for by some.
Emmanuel Macron no longer expects anything from his government and his majority.Those who were the heart of the original macronism, and have today been relegated to the rank of "left wing" - to one day perhaps continue their downgrading to the status of "rebellious", like their Dutch predecessors? - had hoped to reconnect with the "at the same time". "Liberate, protect". Disruption, daring, reformism, and at the same time benevolence and the desire to include everyone in the debate, to unite. These early macronists are likely to be disappointed.
What we know at this stage of the roadmap, which was published in the regional daily press by the President, looks very little like a new reformist and innovative impetus. The President “does not change course”, favoring consistency over the agility that one would have expected from the captain of the start-up nation. Persevere on unemployment and pension reform, with a slightly less ambitious goal; act for young people (which government has not promised to make youth its priority?); promise a “fifth risk” for addiction… so many themes that we cannot doubt here that they will be the subject of hard work by the new government, but which can hardly be said to be illustrate the original Macronian promise.
Neither reinvention, nor true homecoming on the casting. No more on the roadmap, as far as we know at this point. Perhaps on the method, if Castex manages to exist - which is not acquired, yet.
The Macronism of the origins was a light clearance, a quest for political renewal and a promise of ideological renewal, against a background of "liberation of energies" and citizen participation. The more time passes, the more it seems unlikely that the President will return to it.
Read also: Reshuffle: in Macronie, all roads lead to Nicolas Sarkozy
From the very first days of the quinquennium - we remember the long march of the President in the courtyard of the Louvre, on the evening of the second round - it turned into Bonapartism in the 21st century. A vertical practice of power, at the service of movement. A movement that ended up making some people dizzy, they struggled to envisage the society that this reformist headlong rush had to help build. And that's probably what to expect: reinvention is likely to be the continuation of this story, that of a man who made himself and won "alone", who does not wait nothing more from his government and his majority, except to implement as well as possible the decisions he will have taken, and which is betting to win back the hearts of the French alone.
