Paris: Emmanuel Macron is keeping France in the dark about how extensive a cabinet overhaul he's planning to give a new impulse to his presidency.
On Wednesday he is expected to consider a whole new list of ministers as he prepares to enter phase two of his government and draw a line under months of scandals and political setbacks.
French president Emmanuel Macron, left, with his wife Brigitte Macron on Monday.Credit:AP
Beyond the timing, what remains unclear is the scope of the changes Macron will instigate. While he could simply replace Gerard Collomb, who quit as interior minister last week, that may not be enough for the 40-year-old President who once alluded to himself as the Roman god Jupiter.
Collomb's messy resignation over two days "shows that the Jupiterian machine has sand in its gears and that he has to get things on track again," said Florian Silnicki, founder of political communications agency LaFrench'Com. "Macron risks being 'Hollandised' in that he could look like a weak president," he said, referring to predecessor Francois Hollande.
Emmanuel Macron, centre, French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, right, and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe last year.Credit:AP
Plunging domestic approval ratings and question marks over his style of governance are casting a pall over Macron's efforts to strengthen Europe, bolster the euro zone and lead the charge against nationalist forces from Italy to Hungary. Faced with internal revolt in the ministerial team picked to carry out his French reform agenda, Macron is casting about for new faces.
RMC Radio said the cabinet reshuffle could involve between five and 10 ministers or junior ministers being replaced or seeing their functions rejigged, with those responsible for culture, agriculture and territorial cohesion the most likely to be replaced. Philippe is widely expected to be re-named as prime minister.
Macron's office would not comment on his plans beyond saying the President was readying for "an important rebound."
More than a half dozen people, all men, have been mentioned in French media as possible replacements for Collomb, who as Socialist mayor of Lyon was one of the first political heavyweights to back Macron's nascent political campaign in early 2017. They include: Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, former police chief Frederic Pechenard, and Paris prosecutor Francois Molins, who came to national prominence following the 2015 terrorist atrocities.
Other possibilities are Christophe Castaner, the head of Macron's political party LREM, and Jean Castex, who was deputy chief of staff to former president Nicolas Sarkozy and has run major sporting events.
Bruno Le Maire meanwhile said in an interview with French radio Europe 1 that he was "enthusiastic" about working for Macron as finance and economy minister. "Unemployment is falling, public finances are under control, growth is coming back," he said. "I want to continue what I'm doing."
An Odoxa poll released on Monday found that 80 per cent consider Macron's communication in the Collomb case to have been poor; 75 per cent said they see the departures of Collomb and Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot, who quit on live radio in August, as a sign of "a real problem" in the way Macron governs.
But the poll did have some good news for Macron: his approval rating rose four percentage points to 33 per cent in October; that's still the second-lowest level since he took office in May 2017. A Kantar-Sofres poll released on Sunday showed his popularity sinking three points to 30 per cent, his lowest ever.
Macron's popularity slid at the start of his mandate as he pushed through labour and tax changes that opponents said benefited corporations and the wealthy. His ratings have been hurt further this European summer by suggestions that his office tried to cover up an incident in which a presidential bodyguard beat demonstrators on a day off, and by comments Macron made that implied the French complain too much or don't look hard enough for work.
Still, the prospect of a cabinet overhaul in the euro-area's second-biggest economy after Germany failed to roil investors more concerned by the political atmosphere in neighbouring Italy.
That may in part be because French presidents and legislatures are elected to five-year terms, so barring a major disaster Macron stays in the Elysee Palace until at least 2022. And whatever government is named later this week will have to overhaul unemployment benefits and the pensions systems, two major elements in the "transformation" plan Macron pledged to pursue during his campaign.
Last month Macron said he was "not poll driven" and pledged to "keep exactly the same pace" for the rest of his mandate.
Bloomberg
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