The back-to-school government seminar was to set the timetable and the challenges for the coming weeks for the ministers.
Talk about method and perspectives, in a damn busy news at the beginning of September.
But after almost three hours of discussion, the participants especially remembered one thing: the "rant", says one of them, addressed by Emmanuel Macron in the secrecy of this meeting which was held, for the first times since the end of confinement, by videoconference after the forced isolation of Jean Castex, tested negative but "contact case" of Covid-19.
"The president was not happy, even grumpy", slips a heavyweight of the executive.
When another speaks squarely of "cropping", even of a "pissed off" Macron.
The reason ?
The internal bickering around the term “wildness”, rotted the government communication back to school when it was initially organized around the management of health crisis and the economic recovery plan.
"It was the boss, no one has flown"
With two ministers particularly in the line of sight: Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, and Eric Dupond-Moretti, Keeper of the Seals, accused of having fueled the fire several times, by dint of "untimely statements" ", According to a close friend of the head of state.
And even, to a lesser extent, the Prime Minister, whose president judges, in private, "that he sometimes talks too much".
“Don't let the terms of the debate dictate.
Do not create controversies between us, the news is dense enough not to give grain to grind our opponents, ”thus released the tenant of the Elysee in the introduction of the seminar.
More than an introduction, a monologue of almost twenty minutes, where he urged his family to respect "the timing" of each other: "We have to sequence better, it is not possible to go out like that. in all directions.
The French do not understand anything, ”he continued, also calling on his people to better coordinate their announcements and their movements.
“In short, he lectured.
He was the boss, no one moved ”, sums up a minister, who“ feels that the tension will rise more and more as the presidential election will approach ”.
"A reframing on the stricto sensu"
“He is fed up with seeing the government get bogged down in this controversy over wilderment.
We give the impression of not controlling our comeback, of chasing our opponents.
He had to bang his fist on the table once and for all, ”translates a cadre of En Marche.
In the entourage of the Head of State, however, there is a tendency to minimize the scope of this clarification: "It was clear and firm", we summarize, rejecting the idea of "reframing on the stricto sensu com ”.
“The essential depends on us”, nevertheless hammered Macron, obliged to recall “the promise of 2017, the transformation of the country and the emancipation of each one”, and relying on his usual “political overcoming of the right-wing divide- left ”.
“In short, it was a course in politics.
It is already planning for the next electoral deadlines ”, reflects a heavyweight of the government.
Moreover, Emmanuel Macron did not fail to recall the next meeting, the departmental and regional elections in March, for which he wants to see ministers on the front line.
“I want maximum commitment from everyone.
There will have to be top ministers.
I ask those who think about it to come forward quickly to the Prime Minister ", he urged, after summing up the issue of the moment:" I expect you to be much more than relays of our actions. .
You must be a government more than ever on the attack.
On the attack to be effective.
A good pressure boost, then.