That was exactly a year ago.
On Sunday February 16, 2020, the sky cleared up over Grenoble (Isère).
The mercury climbs in the early afternoon.
Olivier Véran goes for a picnic with his children.
In Venon, on the heights, there is a tercentenary oak tree which dominates the valley.
The family settles in the shade.
The cell phone starts ringing: “Olivier, do you have a nice suit?
straight away asks someone close to Emmanuel Macron.
The situation is likely to change quickly.
Agnès Buzyn will leave the government to run for municipal elections in Paris.
"
Olivier Véran, whose name circulates with each change, takes the call lightly.
At 2 p.m., the mobile vibrates again.
"Did you find a way to get back to Paris quickly?"
»Asks his interlocutor insisting.
The case therefore seems serious!
At 6 p.m., an SMS from Matignon confirms the promotion.
Here is the deputy LREM, only 39 years old, propelled to power, after a surprise acceleration.
The fall of Benjamin Griveaux, against the backdrop of a sextape, has reshuffled the cards in the capital.
Olivier Véran is far from imagining that he will become the face of the crisis.
The news is then dominated by the bill on pensions, of which the elected representative of Isère is one of the rapporteurs.
Emmanuel Macron warns him, however: "We will have to be very active on the coronavirus".
As for Agnès Buzyn, she alerts him to the possible saturation in hospitals, if the situation becomes epidemic.
So, in order not to waste time, Véran keeps the teams in place: “I want everyone to stay at their post,” he says.
With the number 2 of the ministry, the Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon, relations will not always be good.
From scientific advice to controversies
This unknown virus imposes heavy decisions, such as containment.
The French discover a teacher on TV who draws curves on leaves.
He creates a scientific council, whose influence will be exorbitant at the beginning.
"It is not easy to take office when a crisis breaks out," admits, with hindsight, the Minister of Health.
Like many, Olivier Véran first gets lost on masks, "not the alpha and omega of protection", and on massive test operations.
His ministry, little used to logistics, is fishing in the deployment on the ground.
In the defense councils, he crosses swords with the Minister of the Economy, Bruno le Maire, who wants to loosen the grip.
Unsurprisingly, the Minister of Health is in the camp of the prudent, with Edouard Philippe, then Jean Castex.
Not long ago, the Minister of Health was still pleading for re-containment, an option that Emmanuel Macron finally rejected.
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Véran, left winger of the president
In twelve months, the chief medical officer of the crisis will have had to face many controversies, from hydroxychloroquine to delays in vaccination.
And complaints against the government - his home was raided in October.
A sword of Damocles above his head?
“I cannot afford to live with the apprehension of the criminal risk, comments Olivier Véran.
It exists, it is real, but I refuse to be guided by it.
"The neurologist adds:" I am a doctor.
Sometimes you have to make quick decisions about an operation or a transfer.
You cannot act in fear.
This does not prevent being eventually brought to account.
"
At the forefront, Olivier Véran walks the country.
One day in the Oise, another in Lyon or Moselle.
“Have all the chains of contamination been traced or isolated?
He asked last Friday, in front of the cameras to local officials, while the variants have flourished in the department.
Season 2 has only just begun.
"I'm on the left, not a lesson-giver"
Because the Minister of Health is also an ambitious politician.
“Olivier Véran, we don't have the impression that he has reneged on himself.
He even had a few hitches with Darmanin.
It is not him that we want to hit the government first, “admits a socialist official.
The Minister of Health has kept the esteem of his former PS comrades.
What to embody the left wing of the government, lacking in incarnation?
Not that easy…
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The professional doctor does not belong to any chapel.
He does not participate in the initiatives of Territories of Progress, sponsored by his colleagues Jean-Yves Le Drian and Olivier Dussopt.
Nor to the In common movement of the Minister for Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili.
He rather goes it alone.
"I am on the left, not a lesson-giver," he confides.
I have a deep respect for those who think together, but I am not too much in the structures, the forums, the collective appeals.
I am in the action.
"
Olivier Véran also likes to recall the full wording of his function: he is “Minister of Health… and Solidarity!
”, Even if this component is less noticeable.
His glory: in June, Olivier Véran obtained the creation of a fifth branch of Social Security, dedicated to autonomy and disability.
History, even if the Old Age law seems to have started well, to be buried… To its credit also, the 8 billion euros of the Ségur of health, to revalorize the wages of the sector.
“My ideas are the fight against inequalities;
my method, the action ”, summarizes Olivier Véran.
“The future of right-wing macronism is Darmanin. And the one on the left is Véran, comments an adviser to the executive. Suddenly, he sees himself big. In the majority, many lend him great ambitions, in the event of a second five-year term. "He sees himself as Prime Minister," squeaks a government adviser. Which jokes: "He's good, but watch out for the enlarged ego." It's a bit like my apple.com. He must not forget that he was propelled by events. "Olivier Véran leaves all the doors open:" I have not finished what I want to do, but there are also many themes that interest me in the public domain, says the Minister of Health. I will be where I find it most useful. "