Elisabeth Borne is on a wire. After the battle for pension reform, the Prime Minister seems particularly weakened, and her position is more than ever threatened. In addition, in an article published by Le Monde on April 7, the head of government did not hesitate to distance herself from Emmanuel Macron.
She thus called not to “rush things” and respect “a period of convalescence” after the numerous massive mobilizations organized everywhere in France. By adopting such a conciliatory tone and a desire to calm things down, his remarks thus appeared in opposition to those made by the President of the Republic during his trip to China who denied any “democratic crisis in France”, notes Challenges.
Since then, the Prime Minister has assured “We share exactly the same objectives: to appease the country and provide concrete and rapid responses to the French”, thus seeking to show the unity of the Executive. But the unpopularity and the difficulty of Elisabeth Borne to constitute a majority on the text of the pension reform sows doubt, and the idea that a new tenant of Matignon could soon be appointed is still gaining ground.
In the ranks of the majority, some are thus beginning to imagine themselves taking the place of the head of government. This is particularly the case of Gérald Darmanin, current Minister of the Interior. “Matignon, he thinks about it, he wants to. We feel that he imagines a destiny”, recently declared a majority executive to our colleagues from franceinfo.
But another right profile, and not the least, also seems to be eyeing the Hotel Matigon, the former President of the Republic, Nicolas Sarkozy.
A politician still highly respected by some right-wing voters, Nicolas Sarkozy could be a more than interesting profile to convince some of the Republican sympathizers.
The former head of state would secretly dream of being appointed by Emmanuel Macron, this is in any case what several relatives confirm to L’Obs: “He dreams of it, it sweats everywhere”. It must be said that the two men maintain a certain closeness and have lunch together regularly.
But is this ambition of Nicolas Sarkozy to return to the front of the stage likely to succeed?
If Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed his confidence in Elisabeth Borne on several occasions, during his speech on Monday April 17, he expressed that he was looking for “coalitions and new alliances”. To win back the right, the choice to designate Nicolas Sarkozy as Prime Minister could be a more than interesting idea.
However, this decision would be far from unanimous. “What we could possibly win on one side, on the right, we would lose in the ranks of Renaissance. It would be, neither more nor less, a cohabitation”, thus declared a major figure of the majority to our colleagues.
