AT YOUR SERVICE. Delighted by the numerous responses to our requests for predictions on the identity of the next Prime Minister (we received the names of Michel Barnier and Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet this weekend), your servant proposes a new question: what was your favorite political episode recounted by Playbook? Not allowed to mention the announcement of the dissolution , that would be too easy. Who knows, maybe the best argument will even win a POLITICO-branded goodie … Hello everyone, it's Monday, August 5, 2024.
MATIGNON 2024
THE SOUND OF BREGANÇON . Hear ye, hear ye, new echoes chinese overseas british database from the Var fort, where the head of state is considering his future government, have reached us, good people. One of the president's summer contacts, with whom your newsletter spoke yesterday, first gave us his thoughts on the PR's schedule. According to him, Emmanuel Macron intends to "take back the political initiative at the end of August"... but not necessarily appoint a Prime Minister as soon as the Olympic Games are over. So we'll have to wait a little longer.
Meanwhile, Emmanuel Macron took a little trip on Friday to strut his stuff alongside the day's medal winners ( Teddy Riner , Léon Marchand ). So much so that our colleagues at Le Figaro and Libération saw it as another competition: who will benefit most from the success of the Olympics, with Gabriel Attal as the challenger.
The rest of the time, the PR consults, observes, and tests. "He's not closing any doors," another of his recent phone calls assured us last week. This one summed up the presidential strategy thus: "He throws everything in the can, and he sees." He hasn't given up on winning over a section of the Socialists in addition to Laurent Wauquiez's right, but still denies any legitimacy for the New Popular Front to govern, due to its lack of a majority in the Assembly.
"We can negotiate deals on a number of measures, in exchange for a promise not to vote on a motion of censure" that would overthrow the government, our interlocutor then considered.
The names. During his discussions with his close associates, Emmanuel Macron is said to have mentioned two possible candidates to succeed Gabriel Attal. Xavier Bertrand, whom we spoke about on Thursday . And, according to Le Parisien yesterday, Bernard Cazeneuve. François Hollande's former Prime Minister, the daily wrote, recently spoke with the head of state.