He was the only real headliner, very identified by the French, who could have led a majority list in the regional elections scheduled for next June.
But by officially announcing Thursday that he gave up wearing iron against Valérie Pécresse (ex-LR) in Ile-de-France, Jean-Michel Blanquer, the Minister of Education, showered the - very meager - hopes of LREM .
Five months before the poll, no one in a majority still traumatized by its debacle in the last municipal elections, even pretends to believe in the possibility of a victory in one of the thirteen French regions.
"Our chances?
It's zero!
», Replies tit for tat a former minister.
“It won't be a grand cru.
We will not campaign and there will be a huge bonus for those leaving, ”laughs a member of the government who now hopes to move on.
And preferably as quickly as possible.
“Our interest now is that it takes place.
In June, it is not worse because after there is the summer vacation.
We put in the wake of a small referendum on the climate and like that everyone will quickly have turned this page ”, continues the Minister.
A pessimism that Marie Guévenoux, the deputy general delegate of LREM in charge of the elections, tries however to temper: “We have a base which will allow us to be present in many regions in the second round.
We will therefore be in the position of kingmaker.
“Hope is still in particular in the Pays de Loire, where the former Minister François de Rugy - who has expressed his desire to go there - is one point ahead of the outgoing LR, Christelle Morancais in a recent poll .
“We're not saying we're going to win, but it's not impossible.
In any case, there is no question of setting goals for this election, ”summarizes a framework of the majority.
LREM commissioned polls to test ministers
Revealing the prevailing defeatism within En Marche, Blanquer's package, which was expected anyway, is not however experienced internally as a cataclysm: “He is not yet a politician.
He never left his hallway, except once, to talk about secularism and he messed up, ”strangles a former colleague.
All the more so as LREM knows: the minister effect would not have generated campaign dynamics anyway.
According to our information, the party has conducted several polls since September to test the candidacy of members of the government for regional elections.
And the results did not exactly boost the morale of En Marche executives.
In Hauts-de-France, Gérald Darmanin - who is not, however, a candidate - is thus credited with only 11% of the votes in the first round, the same score except for that of Jean-Michel Blanquer in Ile -of France.
We are very, very far from the plebiscite.
Another pitfall for the majority: the package of Blanquer revives tensions with the Modem which sits in many regions alongside the outgoing, in particular in Ile-de-France and in Hauts-de-France.
Hardly had the Minister of Education thrown in the towel than the MoDem deputy Jean-Noël Barrot, let it be known that he was ready to take up the torch while LREM had already passed it on to walker Laurent Saint-Martin.
"I learned of Barrot's candidacy in the press," chokes a framework of the majority.
A meeting between all the components of the majority in Ile-de-France is scheduled this Saturday to try to smooth things over ... While En Marche will unveil this Monday the list of all its leaders for the regional, the path of cross has only just begun.
