Rising French political star Emmanuel Macron’s place in government was in question yesterday after he strongly hinted at a presidential bid in a speech to supporters of his new political movement.
Macron, the 38-year-old economy minister, stopped just short of throwing his hat into the ring for next May’s election in the address to 3,000 supporters on Tuesday night.
But the former investment banker’s pledge to lead his En marche! (On the move) grouping “to 2017 and to victory” left little doubt about his intentions.
“From tonight, we have to be what we are, which is the movement of hope,” he told the audience.
In what Socialist colleagues saw as further proof of his disloyalty, Macron indirectly criticised President Francois Hollande by describing France as “a country worn down by broken promises”.
And in an apparent dig at Prime Minister Manuel Valls — who has expressed annoyance at Macron’s stance — he said his vision for France had irritated some because “it will upset the established order”.
Macron said that in his two years in the government, “I realised how much the system did not want to change.”
The timing of the speech, ahead of Hollande’s traditional Bastille Day TV interview today, had raised eyebrows.
“It’s high time all this stopped,” Valls said Tuesday in an exasperated aside to TV cameras at the Senate.
Government spokesman Stephane Le Foll called for unity, saying “we have to avoid scattering in all directions”.Le Foll said Macron’s speech was not even mentioned in a cabinet meeting yesterday, but that Hollande is likely to refer to it today.
Other members of the government did not hide their irritation.
“When you are a minister, you talk about the present, you act, you don’t think about the future,” Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas said.
Housing Minister Emmanuelle Cosse, an ecologist, said Macron’s criticism of the political system was “a bit rich coming from someone who is totally from within the system”.
The regional daily Alsace said in an editorial: “It will be difficult for Emmanuel Macron to stay for much longer in a government from which he has uncoupled.”
Hollande’s response to Macron setting up the party in April was clear — he “has to be in my team, under my authority”, he said.
As Macron edges towards throwing his hat into the ring for the presidency, the breadth of his appeal is also coming under increased scrutiny.
An editorial in Le Monde newspaper yesterday pointed out that his audience were all “the winners from globalisation — young, enthusiastic, entrepreneurial and cosmopolitan”.
One of Macron’s key supporters, Lyon mayor Gerard Collomb, has hinted that Macron could launch his campaign in September.
The problem facing the Socialists is that while Macron refuses to rule out a bid for France’s highest office, Hollande’s abysmal poll ratings make it hard for him to appear the natural candidate of the left 10 months from now.
Macron said earlier this month the possibility of primaries being held to decide the candidates of both the Socialists and the centre-right Republicans was “proof of the weak leadership on both sides”.
Hollande has said he will decide by the end of the year whether he will stand, even though opinion polls currently show he would be eliminated in the first round.
The president and the government appear to have weathered the storm of weeks of strikes and protests over their attempts to reform France’s rigid labour laws to make it easier to hire and fire employees and bring down the high unemployment that has dogged Hollande.