Jean-Michel Blanquer and Marlène Schiappa, December 9, 2020. (Photo Alain JOCARD / AFP) ALAIN JOCARD / AFP
Some were announced upon departure, others wanted to turn the page of ministerial responsibility. All marked Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term. Several heavyweights from Jean Castex’s government were not reinstated in the first government team led by Elisabeth Borne, announced on Friday 20 May. Among them: Barbara Pompili, Jean-Michel Blanquer, Julien Denormandie, Marlène Schiappa, Jean-Yves Le Drian and Florence Parly.
In addition to these personalities, sixteen other ministers and secretaries of state were not renewed: Roselyne Bachelot (culture), Annick Girardin (sea), Frédérique Vidal (higher education and research), Elisabeth Moreno (equality, diversity), Emmanuelle Wargon (housing). ), Jean-Baptiste Djebbari (Transportation), Roxana Maricineanu (Sport), Geneviève Darrieussecq (Veterans), Nadia Hai (City), Sophie Cluzel (Handicap), Bérengère Abba (Ecological Transition), Sarah El Haïry (Youth), Cédric O (digital), Laurent Pietraszewski (pensions), Joël Giraud (landscape) and Adrien Taquet (childhood and family).
Also read: Newcomers, renewed ministers: The government’s trombinoscope by Elisabeth Borne
Barbara Pompili avoids the ecological turnaround
She had managed to establish herself as Macronie’s heavyweight by embodying its ecological wing, but disappeared from the governing team when Emmanuel Macron tried to step on the gas pedal on the environmental transition.
If some regularly questioned his loyalty to the head of state, Ms Pompili was the first member of Bernard Cazeneuve’s government to back candidate Emmanuel Macron at the end of François Hollande’s five-year term in March 2017.
The 46-year-old former environmentalist pushed through the climate law in 2021 after a citizens’ convention. His greatest feat of arms, but also a symbol of Macron’s great ecological divide. Co-pilot of Incommon, a small majority left-wing party, she is running in the general elections in the Somme.
Also read: Agnès Pannier-Runacher appointed Minister for Energy Transition in the new government
Jean-Michel Blanquer retires with a longevity record
After five years in rue de Grenelle – a record in the Fifth Republic – Jean-Michel Blanquer can boast of having pushed the baccalaureate reform, the doubling of CP and CE1 classes in priority areas of education and campaigning to keep schools open despite Covid as much as possible.
He also had to direct the assassination of Samuel Paty, that professor of history and geography who was beheaded in October 2020.
But this “techno”, criticized for its rigidity and excessive taste in communication, arouses suspicion and even rejection from a large part of the academic world and the left. A declared opponent of “Wokism” and the “Islamo Left”, he tries to continue the political adventure by throwing himself into the legislative battle in the Loiret.
Also read: Historian Pap Ndiaye, new Minister for National Education and Youth, targeted by far-right
Julien Denormandie wants to devote himself to his family
Julien Denormandie, loyal to Emmanuel Macron from the very beginning, has been Minister of Agriculture and Food since July 2020, having held the posts of Minister responsible for Urban Affairs and Housing and Secretary of State to the Minister for Territorial Cohesion since 2017.
This 40-year-old bridge, water and forest engineer, well respected by the agricultural world, was less popular with ecologists, who criticized him for being only the spokesman for the FNSEA and the agricultural industry.
However, Mr Denormandie, who has been regularly heralded as a possible successor to Alexis Kohler, the all-powerful secretary-general of the Elysée, has said he would like to devote more time to his family.
Also read: Marc Fesneau, the government’s “Mr. Parliament”, becomes the new Minister of Agriculture
Jean-Yves Le Drian, The Departure of the Grognard from the Quai d’Orsay
After ten years on the executive branch, five as defense secretary under Hollande, then five at the Quai d’Orsay, the 74-year-old government dean is hanging up amid an international crisis. Coming from the Socialist party, this baron of politics in Brittany, nicknamed “Menhir”, was number two in government.
Fighting against jihadists in Iraq, Syria and Mali, diplomatic break with Bamako, submarine crisis with Australia, global pandemic, invasion of Ukraine by Russia: against the background of the crisis, Mr Le Drian had to withdraw from the growing tensions at international level level represent multilateralism.
Also read: Catherine Colonna appointed Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs
Florence Parly deserts the armies in the middle of the war in Ukraine
Unsurprisingly, at the age of 59, Florence Parly leaves the Federal Ministry of Defense, which she has headed since 2017. From 2000 to 2002 State Secretary for Budget under Lionel Jospin, this discreet personality persistently fought for a strong increase in the funds of the Federal Ministry of Defense armies. In recent months she has had to deal with the fiasco surrounding the mega-contract for French submarines with Australia, the withdrawal of the “Barkhane” troops from Mali and the war in Ukraine.
Also read: Sébastien Lecornu, confidant of Emmanuel Macron, lands the Ministry of the Armies in the new government
Marlène Schiappa, the departure of a media figure
In office as State Secretary for Equality between Women and Men and the Fight against Discrimination, Marlène Schiappa had been Minister and Delegate of the Minister of the Interior at the time of the #metoo wave since the summer of 2020, responsible for citizenship.
The media figure of Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year tenure for his work against sexual and gender-based violence, however, saw her star fade in the shadow of Gérald Darmanin after her visit to Beauvau. She has published several books including It’s a good situation, that, minister?, the most recent.