The announcement will be official next week. According to our information, Emmanuel Macron will propose Thursday, September 3, in the Council of Ministers, the appointment of François Bayrou to the post of High Commissioner for Planning. The President of the Republic and Prime Minister Jean Castex, have come to an agreement in recent days, after "last telephone calls with Bayrou", one explains at the top of the State. In any case, it is the end of an open secret. The ephemeral Minister of Justice at the start of his five-year term will mark on this occasion his great return to the national political scene. And this, three years after his forced departure from the government (he had only stayed one month in Place Vendôme) linked to the case of the alleged fictitious jobs of the Modem in the European Parliament, and for which he was indicted in December 2019.
Last weekend, the main interested party himself put pressure on the occasion of an interview in the Republic of the Pyrenees: “I have always thought that for the Planning Commissioner to have the necessary influence , it was necessary that an experienced political figure could stick to it. I was not thinking of myself at all ", he swore, before assuring that he had" discussed this necessity a lot for months with the President of the Republic "and that the latter had said to him:" It is is a good idea. Why wouldn't you do it yourself? You have reflected on the subject and you correspond to the composite portrait. This proposal interests me ”.
Bayrou will remain mayor of Pau
François Bayrou will remain mayor of Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), but will exercise this function of high commissioner - created after the war by General de Gaulle for the reconstruction of the country, before disappearing in the early 2000s - on a voluntary basis. The case had been heard since early July, even before the composition of the new Castex government. “But the president wanted to dissociate the two things, explains one in the executive. The fact that he occupies this function free of charge also required the drafting of a specific decree, which may also have delayed the expiry of this appointment. "
Even if this return is not necessarily unanimous among the majority. "It's a way of treating Bayrou's ego," tackles a deputy from the Republic on the move, not really happy to see the boss of the centrist party back into the corridors of power.
