It's a little phrase that Emmanuel Macron likes to repeat these days to his ministers: “They want to get the icing on the back of the state.
"They"?
The president thus designates all these elected officials who regularly denounce the action of the government, judging that it does not do enough or that it does not have the right method in terms of health, economics or security.
Some even make it an argument for the regional and departmental elections in June.
And this has the gift of annoying Emmanuel Macron, who is waiting for his troops to respond point by point during the campaign.
"It is too easy to try to win these regions by saying that the State has done nothing, already insists Amélie de Montchalin, Minister of Transformation and Public Service.
In each region, we will talk about reality, we will explain what has been done thanks to the partnership with the State ”.
The government will rely in particular on its barometer of public action results.
The site, that's good, will be updated mid April and the data will be updated department by department.
"The speech of elected officials cannot be: the successes are us, and the failures are the fault of the government", adds Amélie de Montchalin.
Within En Marche, the fear of the regional fiasco is in everyone's mind.
This response to elected officials will, some hope, limit the damage.
And if this strategy also makes it possible to sharpen the arguments for the presidential election of 2022, by starting to defend the results of the five-year term, it will be the icing on the cake.