Bruno Retailleau, a double-edged sword: is he an asset in Michel Barnier's hand or a stone in his shoe ?

Bruno Retailleau, le ministre le plus en vue du gouvernement. MAXPPP - TERESA SUAREZ

The new Minister of the Interior, while appreciated by his political family and right-wing voters, deeply divides the Macronists.

Is he an ace in his hand or a pebble in his loafer ? The appointment of Bruno Retailleau by Michel Barnier as Minister of the Interior was immediately perceived as a weapon drawn by Matignon to neutralize the RN.

But very quickly, the name of the tenant of Place Beauvau also became an irritant for the Macronists supposed to support the Prime Minister.

"It's starting to get on my nerves"

“We have a big problem with Retailleau, we should have refused any coalition that included a new immigration bill. In addition, he did not inform us, we discovered it in the Journal du Dimanche”, a former minister ranted to La Dépêche on Monday.

“Multiplying announcements through the press whether on immigration or security, it's starting to get a bit much. We can't have a method of bypassing parliamentarians at the very moment when the government is in the minority”, added the Macronist president of the Laws Commission Florent Boudié in Sud-Ouest.

The same person also sent a letter directly to the tenant of Place Beauvau to criticize him for having announced to the prefects that he wanted to reverse the Valls circular before informing the Law Commission, which had nevertheless heard him a few days earlier.

“By mixing all the subjects together, we are making the bed for the RN”, finally exasperates the former minister Roland Lescure in an interview with Les Échos.

He explains: “The Parliament has had to pass 30 laws on immigration over the last forty years. I don't think that a 31st will solve the problems."

An emblematic right-wing man

But if the new Minister of the Interior annoys the former marchers, he seduces on the right of the chambers. 170 LR deputies and senators rushed to his aid in a tribune when the minister was attacked for having questioned the rule of law.

In government, the LR ministers support him and his colleagues at Place Beauvau appreciate the man and his methods: “We are a very close-knit triumvirate around Bruno Retailleau who is a very emblematic man of the right. We have two meetings with him every week, he knows how to bring our collective to life”, congratulates one of his delegate ministers who assures us that his irritating side does not harm him with the Macronists.

But Bruno Retailleau mainly plays public opinion and this is precisely what the former majority reproaches him for:“If he really wanted to pass bills, he would be careful not to upset us since he needs our votes for a text to be voted on. But Retailleau is betting that Barnier will not hold out and he wants to come out as the hero of the right”, analyzes a member of parliament from the Macron camp.

Popular with the police

The fact remains that public opinion is on board. On October 3, just after his comments on the rule of law, the Elabe barometer for Les Échos gave him a sharp increase of 6 points to reach 21% positive opinion. His popularity is at its highest among police officers: “I have good feedback, regular testimonies to say that the police feel supported. In addition, in the programming law, 23,000 recruitments were planned, which reassured the police force,”, a member of the government told us.

It remains to be seen what this popularity will bring when the National Assembly has to debate a possible Immigration law. Asset or stone ?

I subscribe to read the rest