"I will be a half-blood Keeper of the Seals." Éric Dupond-Moretti is he aware that the formula he uses on Tuesday in Place Vendôme during the handover reminds that of Nicolas Sarkozy? In January 2007, the UMP presidential candidate presented himself as a "little French half-blood" during the investiture of his party. Clearly, the ghost of the former President of the Republic has tended to roam the corridors of power in recent days. It had not escaped anyone that the new Prime Minister Jean Castex had been his deputy secretary general at the Elysée. But the rise in rank of Gérald Darmanin, a protégé of the former head of state, at the sensitive post of the Interior only reinforces the weight of the Sarkozysts in the new government.
And what about the appointment of Dupond-Moretti, close friend of Me Thierry Herzog, the lawyer of Nicolas Sarkozy? The star of the bar has several times taken up the cause of the former head of state with whom he shares a certain aversion for the magistrates. In March 2014, the man who was not yet the husband of Quebec singer Isabelle Boulay was invited to a concert by Carla Bruni at the Olympia. "He was there, a little sheepish, with his friend Thierry," remembers a witness to the scene who specifies: "He is not a sarkozyst".
A message to Xavier Bertrand?
Monday evening, Camille Pascal, the former pen of the Elysée Palace, sent an SMS to the former President of the Republic: “I am surprised that nobody warned me that you have returned. "The joke, he told RMC, earned him a call from Nicolas Sarkozy who asked him to stop" saying that it is Sarkozyst "while saying" very happy for the country […] because now he is in good hands. "
What does it matter that Nicolas Sarkozy exchanges regularly with Emmanuel Macron, or telephoned at length last weekend to Roselyne Bachelot or recently still with Gérald Darmanin, the entourage of the former president rejects this little ambient music around the tutelary shadow from the former president: “Gérald Darmanin has been dreaming of the Interior for a long time, he has sent a lot of messages to that effect in recent months. It was therefore not Nicolas Sarkozy who informed the choice of the head of state. "It's the scum of the day," swept the person concerned on Tuesday in front of one of his visitors.
PODCAST. From Jean Castex to Eric Dupond-Moretti: behind the scenes of the reshuffle
"We are talking about the shadow of Sarko, but to be more precise, what has happened in recent days is also a way of sending a message to Xavier Bertrand. Castex and Darmanin, they are above all his relatives and the president obviously has that in mind ", blows a loved one of Emmanuel Macron who does not deny that the message of this new cast is primarily intended to speak to the right in his together.
At MoDem, "the injury will remain gaping for a long time"
Bait but carefully. To keep an eye on the action of Gérald Darmanin, the Elysée has placed the former chief of staff, François-Xavier Lauch, in the office of the Minister of the Interior. As for the appointment of Marlène Schiappa to the post of Minister Delegate at Place Beauvau, it owes nothing to chance. "She will see everything that is going on and be able to report it to the president," said a relative.
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Not enough to dispel the doubts of the MoDem partners. When he discovered Monday that his training retained only Marc Fesneau in Rurality in a first version, François Bayrou threatened to slam the door. “He was not happy at all. He told Macron directly, says a centrist tenor. Especially since the Sarkozyst footprint is still very strong. When you know that he and Sarko are the worst enemies in the world, it's not even provocation at this stage, but a casus belli. The negotiations made it possible to bring Jacqueline Gourault and Geneviève Darrieussecq back to extremis. At MoDem, we sigh: "The injury will remain gaping for a long time ..."