While we believed the reshuffle of July 6 already far away, the soap opera bounces back. In its last issue of July 29, Le Canard Enchaîné tells of a stinging episode of negotiations for the constitution of the government of Jean Castex, entirely piloted from the Elysee Palace. Jean-Yves Le Drian had been instructed by Emmanuel Macron to approach on this subject left-wing women likely to join the government team, in order to rebalance a center of gravity leaning clearly to the right. The Minister of Foreign Affairs had therefore probed his friend Ségolène Royal.
He then informs the Head of State who would have rejected the Royal hypothesis, preferring Barbara Pompili. According to the satirical newspaper, Le Drian would have agreed and answered: "Pompili very well, it is still better than the other madwoman of Ségo". But this close friend of Macron, who has just had the former presidential candidate on the phone, makes a false move and sends the message not to the President of the Republic but to… Ségolène Royal herself!
The latter confirms to the Parisian - Today in France the false maneuver of Le Drian, but ensures that the latter had not described her as "crazy" in his text. Who is the author of this truncated quotation? "It was not me who transmitted this to the Duck," says Ségolène Royal. Had I spoken to someone who would have repeated it, I don't know… ”As for the way in which she is qualified, this inspires her this comment:“ As I say in my last book, as soon as women disturb or when we do not control them, we say that they are crazy, that they no longer have their mental balance. We never say that for a man! "
"It is better Pompili than Ségo"
If Le Drian did indeed make an error in the routing of his SMS intended for Macron, here is the exact wording of this message sent on Saturday July 4 at the beginning of the afternoon, shortly after hanging up with Royal: "I have considering the PM it (sic) went very well! (Editor's note: Castex confirmed to him that he was staying at the Quai d'Orsay). Still no return from Johanna! For Ségo you tell me what to do! But to be clear with you, Pompili is better than Ségo if you also have Marie Guitte! I'm going to try again Johanna but I think she has gone to absent subscribers! “Explanation: Le Drian also approached - in vain - the PS mayor of Nantes, Johanna Rolland, and the PS president of the Bourgogne-Franche Comté region, Marie-Guite Dufay.
Also on July 4 at 4.30 p.m., Royal reminded Macron without mentioning the SMS received in error: “Hello Emmanuel. I received a call from Jean-Yves to suggest contact with you. You call me whenever you want. Ségolène ”. According to the essayist Françoise Degois, close to the ex-president of the Poitou-Charentes region, Macron would have recalled her the same evening.
Distraught Elysée advisers
But in the meantime, the media machine has taken off and some Elysée advisers are panicking journalists calling to deny that the head of state has had contact with Royal. Perfectly aware, Degois splits a vengeful tweet: “Some advisers would do better to be silent! "She is recalled by a colleague of Macron who tries to pick up the pieces:" the president has a lot of respect and friendship for Ségolène ". Which will, on BFMTV, deny the denial of the president's men ...
Reshuffle: Ségolène Royal confides having "been called by someone close to the President of the Republic" pic.twitter.com/gbdLCHobPg
- BFMTV (@BFMTV) July 5, 2020From this imbroglio, Royal retains the idea that a government of national unity would have been justified in this period of crisis: “People would have preferred that, rather than this government too to the right which does not look like anything. "Not dismantled by this affair, Le Drian's blunder on the contrary makes her giggle:" The great head of French diplomacy mixes up his SMS: if he does the same thing at the diplomatic level, you realize! "
