Anticipating François Bayrou’s refusal to work under the orders of Gabriel Attal, the head of state would have dangled a “tailor-made” position to his ally.
Emmanuel Macron had every intention of seeing his MoDem partner return to the forefront within the executive, after his acquittal by the courts. However, the head of state quickly felt that François Bayrou would not easily agree to work in the government under the orders of Gabriel Attal, he who had personally opposed his appointment. This is why, according to information from Le Figaro, Macron tried to make a somewhat surprising offer to Bayrou.
What mission did the Head of State hold out to the head of the MoDem to try to convince him? Regulars at the Elysée speak of “a tailor-made position”, “a privileged role, directly with” Emmanuel Macron. To be more precise, the president would have wanted to task his ally with unifying the presidential majority into a single political party.
“What I was told is that the head of state is ready to bury Renaissance to create what he calls ‘the great confederation of progressivism’ and unify the central bloc,” confides a regular from the Elysée to the Figaro. Another confirms that the head of state “finds it inept to have three parties that think the same thing each in their own lane.” François Bayrou was therefore offered the heavy task of “founding the ‘great political movement of unity and action'” that Macron “had called for for his re-election”.
An idea which apparently did not hit the mark with François Bayrou. Moreover, this Friday morning, the founder of MoDem defended to France Bleu Régions the importance “that in a political group like a majority, we can have approaches that are not the same, nuances, sometimes even a little more, discrepancies”. No question, therefore, of merging his party into that of Emmanuel Macron.