Stéphane Séjourné, foreign minister in France's outgoing government, was on a plane to Athens on the morning of Monday, September 16 when the Elysée announced that he would be the next French commissioner in the team that will surround Ursula von der Leyen for her second term, starting on December 1 at the latest.

Earlier that day, he was in Yerevan, Armenia when Thierry Breton published his resignation letter on X. Just beforehand, the European commissioner for the internal market had taken care to send it to von der Leyen, the president of the EU's executive arm, as well as to the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his secretary general, Alexis Kohler.

On Sunday evening, September 15, Macron had decided to reverse his decision to reappoint Breton for the next five years. The head of state may have warned all the protagonists in this affair, but the commissioner, who is not the type to go quietly, didn't give him time to refine his communication strategy.

At 8 am on Monday, he posted his first message on X, accompanying a photo of a whiteboard – "My official portrait for the next Commission term" – before broadcasting his letter of resignation to von der Leyen. "A few days ago, in the very final stretch of negotiations on the composition of the future College, you asked France to withdraw my name – for personal reasons that in no instance you have discussed directly with me," he wrote, to justify the decision, "effective immediately."

Until very recently, however, the matter seemed to have been settled. On June 27, during the European Council meeting at which the 27 member states proposed giving von der Leyen a second term of office, Macron made it clear that he wanted to keep Breton in Brussels. "It's my wish, and I think he has the right experience and qualities," he said.

After the European elections on June 9, which saw Macron lose 40% of his troops in the European Parliament, and a dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale that looked more than perilous for the majority, this appointment was, for the Elysée, an essential piece of French influence in Brussels. Indeed, he had made it one of the conditions of France's support for von der Leyen's reappointment, as he had indicated to Angela Merkel's former minister when she visited him in Paris on June 12.

On July 25, a week after von der Leyen's investiture by the European Parliament, the Elysée sent an official letter to formalize its choice. It is in fact the member states who nominate the commissioner they wish to see in Brussels, but it is the head of the community executive who allocates the portfolios. In this case, Macron had also made it clear that he wanted a vice presidency for France, to enable it to set out its priorities in terms of strategic autonomy and economic sovereignty. In addition to the internal market, industry – including defense – and digital, for which Breton was already responsible, Paris was also keen for the French commissioner to oversee research and trade, competition and even energy.

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