Emmanuel Macron seeks ‘second wind’ with wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle

The Élysée finally announced a cabinet reshuffle on Tuesday, two weeks after the resignation of interior minister Gérard Collomb created a crisis for French president Emmanuel Macron.

Cabinet ministers are usually replaced within a day or two. The reshuffle was the slowest in the 60-year history of the Fifth Republic, complicated by unprecedented tension between Macron and prime minister Edouard Philippe, and by the reluctance of several potential nominees to join the government.

The statement from the Élysée Palace – Macron’s official residence – emphasised both the “continuity of policy . . . and the calendar of reforms” and the fact that the new government is “a renewed team, gifted with a second wind”.

Macron hopes the reshuffle will end the series of setbacks that started with the revelation that his bodyguard, Alexandre Benalla, beat up protesters on May 1st. The president’s misfortunes were compounded by the resignations of his top-ranking environment and interior ministers. His approval rating has plummeted.

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Commentators expressed scepticism that the reshuffle would achieve the "second wind" cited by the Élysée. "This reshuffle has few chances of dramatically changing opinion," wrote Laurent Joffrin, the director of Libération newspaper. "For the time being, the 'second wind' is a baby breath, a political breeze."

The reshuffle was nonetheless wide-ranging. Four cabinet ministers departed. Three new ministers and five secretaries of state or junior ministers were brought into government. Seven sitting ministers saw their duties redefined.

Interior minister

The most important post was that of the interior minister, called “France’s top cop”. The ministry commands a 250,000-strong administration and is a pivot between the Élysée and the prime minister’s office. The job was the principal source of tension between Macron and Philippe. The prime minister, from the moderate wing of the conservative party Les Républicains (LR), wanted someone with a background similar to his own at the interior.

Instead, Macron close one of his most faithful lieutenants, Christopher Castaner (52). "Casta" joined the Socialist Party at the age of 16. Unlike much of Macron's administration, he did not study in a grande école and has admitted he can be "brutal in my will to advance quickly".

Castaner left home at the age of 17 to escape a strict, military father, and says his marriage prevented him “turning out badly” in the years he frequented casinos in southern France. He obtained his baccalaureate late, then studied law, specialising in criminology.

He has been close to Macron since 2013, when Macron was deputy secretary general of the Élysée and “Casta” represented Alpes-de-Haute Provence in the National Assembly. They still speak to each other in the familiar “tu”.

Campaign spokesman

When Castaner was a Socialist candidate in the 2015 regional elections, the party did not have the courtesy to tell him it had withdrawn his candidacy in a deal with conservatives to block the far right Front National. He never forgave the Socialists, and was Macron’s election campaign spokesman. He was until Tuesday head of Macron’s En Marche party and junior minister for relations with parliament.

Castaner never made a secret of his ambition to become interior minister. He will be backed up by a secretary of state with a thorough knowledge of the police force and the ministry, Laurent Nuñez, who Macron had previously appointed to head the domestic intelligence agency DGSI.

The Casta-Nuñez tandem must address a number of difficult issues. Polls show that 61 per cent of French people feel unsafe. Under pressure in the battle against terrorism, French police are angry about millions of hours in unpaid overtime. Fifty-one policemen took their own lives last year. Elections to the powerful police unions are slated for November and December.

The interior ministry will organise next May’s European elections, and the 2020 municipal elections. Castaner will also be responsible for redefining the government’s fraught relations with France’s Muslims.

Former jihadists

Criticism of Castaner’s appointment centred on his statement last March that former jihadists should be brought back from Syria. The LR senator Bruno Retailleau called Castaner “the most sectarian” of Macron’s ministers. Marine Le Pen’s former campaign director and far right senator David Rachline tweeted that it was now certain that “Islamists who went to Syria will be repatriated and maintained with your money before they benefit from the laxness of our leaders who are incapable of protecting us from the Islamist threat.”

Macron sought to correct his poor relations with local government by creating a large “ministry of cohesion of the territories” so that mayors, departmental and regional officials will no longer be shuffled from one bureaucracy to another.

In the run-up to the European elections, Macron also tried to improve relations with François Bayrou’s centrist, pro-European MoDem party by promoting a Bayrou loyalist, Jacqueline Gourault, to head the territories ministry. In a further gesture to Bayrou, Macron appointed Marc Fesneau, the head of the MoDem group in the National Assembly, to replace Castaner as minister for relations with parliament.