FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
PARIS – A grain of sand in Macron's communication machine: The new foreign minister makes mistakes when he speaks and even writes in French, the world language of diplomacy alongside English. Like thousands of other citizens, the minister is dyslexic.
Stéphane Séjourné, 38 years old, seems, at least apparently, to be the same as Macron's other first collaborators, “the Mormons”, as they are called: young, well-prepared, well-groomed appearance without eccentricities, slim in their blue suits and plain ties, formally impeccable and relaxed in front of microphones and cameras.
But just hours after being appointed head of the Quai d'Orsay, Séjourné had to replace experienced outgoing minister Catherine Colonna on a demanding trip to Ukraine. All good in substance, less good in form: Séjourné said he was in Kiev to defend the basic principles – and not the foundations – of democracy and to find out what Ukrainians need, that is, “what they Ukrainians need “.
Errors that are obviously not lost on X users, for example Julien Odoul, Lepenist MP, who protested against the “decadence of the Quai d'Orsay”.
In France, the question of the separation between the elite and the rest of the citizens has resurfaced in recent days with the appointment of the new 34-year-old Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, also a former partner of Séjourné. There is a lot of talk again about “class codes,” that set of cultural knowledge, styles and behaviors that are only accessible to a small circle of initiates and are essential for achieving certain positions. However, when these initiates get the plural wrong, their legitimacy is even more questioned.
However, Séjourné is not a “Mormon” like the others. Growing up in the middle class, the son not of ambassadors but of a France Télécom technician who was transferred to work in Spain, Mexico and Argentina and brought his family with him, he is bilingual in French and Spanish, but above all: how he feels in As he recalled in an interview with Parisien, “I was diagnosed with very severe dyslexia as a child.” For example, the words are sometimes swapped. Through dedication and re-education, I have almost eliminated my oral defects. But the problem returns in a moment of fatigue or significant stress.” And in Kiev, Séjourné slept “five hours in three days,” he says.
The minister addresses dyslexics like him: “Millions of people are in my situation.” I want to convey a message: it may seem like an insurmountable problem, but look at me, anything is possible. Do not lose hope.
Ultimately, in a world obsessed with formal correctness and first impressions, Séjourné's imperfection has the political advantage of humanizing him.