"There will soon be more ministers in the markets than in the Council of Ministers,"
quipped on France Info on Sunday the ecologist Karima Delli, the head of the list of the union of the left in Hauts-de-France.
And for good reason, fifteen of the forty-three members of the government will have their name on a regional or departmental list on June 20 and 27.
Their candidacy will become official this Monday, at noon, with the closing of the deposit of the lists.
To discover
Regional and departmental elections: everything you need to know before voting in June
Read also: Regional: the executive nationalizes the ballot, at the risk of weakening the ministers
Five of them are present in Hauts-de-France to reinforce the troops of the Secretary of State for Pensions, Laurent Pietraszewski.
Among them, heavyweights, such as the Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti.
The Keeper of the Seals is at the top of the regional list in Pas-de-Calais.
The former mayor of Tourcoing, and Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin is also on the list - as well as that of the departmental ones -, like Alain Griset, Minister in charge of Small and Medium Enterprises, and Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister in charge of industry.
Weaken the contenders for 2022
In the northern region, the objective is twofold: to prevent a victory for the National Rally and, at the same time, to try to weaken the outgoing ex-LR president Xavier Bertrand.
As a 2022 presidential candidate, an easy victory in Hauts-de-France would strengthen him at the dawn of the campaign.
Five members of the government are also announced in Île-de-France.
Marlène Schiappa is head of the list in Paris, Amélie de Montchalin, head of the list in Essonne, Emmanuelle Wargon, number two in Val-de-Marne and Nathalie Élimas, head of the list in Val-d'Oise.
The government spokesman, Gabriel Attal, presents himself in the last place - eligible - in the Hauts-de-Seine.
Here again, the mission is to overtake the outgoing ex-LR president Valérie Pécresse, who also expresses her interest in 2022.
LREM behind LR in PACA
Among the other members of the government who are candidates for the regional elections: Marc Fesneau, Minister MoDem in charge of Relations with Parliament, is head of the list in Center-Val-de-Loire.
He is one of the few to be able to win.
His centrist colleague Geneviève Darrieussecq, Minister in charge of Memory and Veterans Affairs, is for her part head of the list in New Aquitaine.
Finally, Brigitte Klinkert, the Minister in charge of Integration, is at the top of the list in the Grand-Est.
While she had announced her candidacy in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, Sophie Cluzel, the Secretary of State for Disabled People, finally withdrew from the game. After many adventures, La République en marche finally decided to support the list of outgoing LR president, Renaud Muselier, even if no minister or LREM parliamentarian is included.
As for the departmental elections, Sébastien Lecornu, the Minister of Overseas Territories is a candidate in his stronghold, the canton of Vernon in Normandy.
Brigitte Bourguignon, the Minister for Autonomy, is a candidate in Pas-de-Calais.
Unlike the legislative elections of 2017, for which the executive had warned that all those defeated should resign from the government, the doctrine was not reissued in the various intermediate local polls. No more than in the municipal, where many of them were sharply defeated in the second round, no one will therefore have to give up his ministerial portfolio in case of defeat. Conversely, several ministers at the head of the list have indicated that they will devote themselves to their mandate if they win.