Emmanuel Macron is done with the "amateurs" he was so proud of in 2017. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal's cabinet, announced on Thursday, January 11, from the winter garden of the Elysée Palace, marks a return to the politics of yesteryear, that of an "old world" that the president imagined throwing out the window when he was first elected.
To form his "close ranks" team, according to the Elysée, and to prioritize "action, action, action," in the words of the new prime minister, Macron drew on the roster of former president Nicolas Sarkozy by recruiting former Justice Minister Rachida Dati (from 2007 to 2009) and ventured into Jacques Chirac's territory to seek out Catherine Vautrin, minister of women's rights from 2005 to 2007.
The two conservative women will sit on the cabinet alongside other former members of the Les Républicains (LR) right wing party: Bruno Le Maire, the powerful minister of the economy, Sébastien Lecornu, minister of the armies, and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, who used to be Nicolas Sarkozy's spokesperson. The shadow of the former right-wing president, who's been relentlessly advocating for an alliance between LR and Macron's camp, hangs over this cast of political purists.
For historic Macronists with center-left sensibilities, absent from this first salvo of appointments – additional junior ministers are expected to be named later this week – this cabinet illustrates the president's unabashed right-wing shift. The drift began during his first term and culminated with the adoption, on December 19, 2023, of the immigration law written under the constraint of LR senators and voted by far-right MPs. The Attal government has just "hammered the final nail into the coffin of Macronism," lamented one Renaissance MP and an early Macron ally. "It's 100% to the right. It's actually staggering," sighed a former left-leaning minister.
François Bayrou, historical Macron supporter, head of the MoDem party and watchdog of the political balance in previous reshuffles, is fuming. His centrist party, represented by Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau, is losing influence. The days when Bayrou could block a nomination deemed too right-wing – such as Vautrin's appointment to the prime minister's office in May 2022 – seem long gone.
Meanwhile, former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said he was satisfied to have at least secured the retention of Christophe Béchu, general secretary of his Horizons party, as environment minister. "At the time of a reshuffle, there are always moments of tension, friction, but no rupture," defended Macron's entourage, which highlighted the president's "duty of freedom" toward his political allies to aim only for "the country's interests."
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