The end of the reign is in sight. With two years to go before the end of President Emmanuel Macron's second term in office, Alexis Kohler, his chief of staff since 2017, will step down on April 14, the Elysée Palace announced on Thursday, March 27.

The news did not come as a major suprise. The day after Macron's re-election in 2022, the "vice president," as he has sometimes been nicknamed, said he would not stay at the Elysée Palace for the full 10 years. His statement had been met with doubt, as his close relations with the president and his hard work had established him as an essential cog in keeping the state running.

Since Macron's dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale on June 9, 2024, which Kholer had not opposed, and the presidential bloc's defeat in the snap parliamentary elections, speculation that Kohler might leave had been rife among the president's entourage. Yet there was always a good reason to postpone his resignation, whether it was the 2024 Paris Olympic Games or the preparation of the budget bill. In the fall of 2024, the news quietly spread that Kohler had approached the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life to inquire about possible conflicts of interest should he take up a job in the private sector. Macron's "twin" was, indeed, looking for a way out.

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