Like an end of holiday tune for Emmanuel Macron. Despite the thirty degrees promised at midday on the rock of Brégançon (Var), the blazing sun and the calm sea, the Head of State will receive this Friday, August 21 at midday on his holiday resort Jean Castex for a lunch, turns it into a business meeting. If the two men exchanged by phone during the summer, they have not seen each other since the end of July and the last Council of Ministers.
A sign that the start of the school year is fast approaching, this reunion in the presidential resort will not take place face to face. The secretary general of the Elysée Alexis Kohler was also invited, as well as Nicolas Revel, the chief of staff of the Prime Minister. The day after her meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who arrived at Fort de Brégançon this Thursday afternoon, with this exclamation: “The best place in the world! "- and after a summer marked by multiple tragedies and crises on the international scene - Macron is therefore slowly returning to internal affairs.
"No false note will be allowed"
It must be said that burning issues await the executive couple in the coming days: the management of the Covid-19 epidemic necessarily, and the economic recovery plan, which will be presented next Tuesday by Bruno Le Maire in the Council of Ministers, with , in the background, the gloomy prospect of cascading social plans. But also the return of employees to companies (with compulsory masks) after the holidays, and especially the return to school which in this context of health crisis promises to be very special.
“This meeting in Brégançon is not intended to lead to decisions or announcements. Above all, it should allow the sequence of the next few days to be set to music. No false notes will be allowed and this applies to everyone. The government must be ready, ”assures an adviser. “It's a comeback that is unlike any other, that has nothing classic. There have never been so many hot topics, ”says another.
Until then, Emmanuel Macron should still stay a few hours in the Var. According to his entourage, he will not return to Paris before Sunday and a possible return trip to Lisbon in the evening to attend the Champions League final between Paris-Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich. "It is being considered, nothing is decided yet", is content to specify one of his relatives. Throughout the weekend, the Head of State should continue to exchange views on the phone with the main ministers concerned, as he has already done throughout these three weeks of August. The same goes for Jean Castex who should hold a few bilateral meetings with members of his government.
A big interview in preparation for Castex
Since his arrival at Matignon, the successor of Edouard Philippe has not ceased to appear in the field - no less than 23 trips since July 4! And he intends to keep the rhythm. Next Wednesday, the day after the Council of Ministers, he will notably go to the Medef summer school where he will deliver a speech eagerly awaited by the employers. Then on September 2, he will host a government seminar supposed to set the course for the next few weeks for the majority.
Meanwhile, the prime minister is also expected to give a big back-to-school interview. Its format - TV, radio or press - "has not yet been fixed", is content to answer those around him. But someone close to the president is already warning: "If there is a worsening of the health crisis, Jean Castex's roadmap will be simple: manage this crisis above all the others." There he is warned.