François Bayrou makes little secret of his desire for renewal. While a reshuffle is still awaited, the MoDem boss reaffirmed on Sunday on BFM that "a change is necessary". "This is the period when the president chooses the faces of the action," he continued. A face is a message. What does the face say about the political line?" The former Minister of Justice has a very clear idea of the profile he would like to see in Matignon. A head of government who, according to him, will have the difficult task of "having to bring the French together". "It's what I've been fighting for all my life," he said.
Reshuffle: Bruno Le Maire extols the "virtues" of "stability" at Bercy
The centrist does not take kindly to the appointment of a personality from the right-wing benches, such as Sébastien Lecornu, whose name comes up regularly. "My problem is not with this or that person (...) I know his background, but I know very little about him. I'm not a prime minister," he initially brushed it off, even though the latter was rumoured to have opposed a promotion of the Minister of the Armed Forces to Matignon. Nevertheless, François Bayrou argues for "the future head of government's deep adherence to the idea that no, we are not at the end of a cycle, in the continuation of the policy that has been in place for decades". He insisted: "I am attached to this unprecedented and totally unforeseen revival which, in 2017, brought down the two clans that held power by an absolute monopoly for fifty years."
This close friend of Emmanuel Macron would rather set his sights on the former Minister of Agriculture (2020-2022) and loyal to the head of state, Julien Denormandie, who is also expected to win Matignon. "He's a very estimable person and in tune with the idea of surpassing himself," he praised. As for his own ambitions as prime minister, François Bayrou preferred to smile about it: "I think it would be funny (...) But I'm still stuck for a number of weeks until February 5." The centrist is still suspended pending the deliberation of the Paris court in the case of the MoDem parliamentary assistants. "You can't be a politician and evade a responsibility of this kind if it's entrusted to you," he conceded, without declining a possible offer.
At the dawn of this ministerial waltz, the High Commissioner for Planning also called for a "tighter" government, as promised by the Head of State at the beginning of his five-year term. "Ministers' messages contradict each other or step on each other's toes all the time," he said. "Too often, members of the government consider their fate to be more important than their general destiny."