It is only midday in Beauvau but at the High Commission of the Republic in Nouméa night has fallen for a long time.
A final dinner with the Kanak separatists has just concluded, the end of Gérald Darmanin's three-day trip to the Pacific.
The Minister of the Interior and Overseas France takes off his jacket to counter the still lingering Caledonian dampness and allows himself a glass of rum.
"It is not given to all ministers to write the history of France"
, he boasts, quoting those who before him had a passion for the future of Le Caillou.
Michel Rocard, Manuel Valls and Edouard Philippe.
He promises to return there in May.
Until then, to use an expression he cherishes when it comes to discussing his political future,
“the water temperature will be different”
.
Here as in Paris, where fiery debates await him at the end of the month around his immigration bill.
A moment of truth for the forties.
THE…
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