“Not all good ideas will come from him”: how Michel Barnier prepared his general policy speech ?

Michel Barnier s’est préparé dans le plus grand secret. MAXPPP – Vincent Isore

Comment le Premier ministre, Michel barnier, a-t-il travaillé son discours de politique générale qu’il prononcera ce mardi à 15 heures ?

Nothing is filtering through… Not even the place where Michel Barnier wrote his general policy statement. At Matignon ? At his home in Paris ?

At most, his advisors tell us that the Prime Minister does not live very far from his new office on Rue de Varenne, suggesting that he travels back and forth a lot.

This simple piece of information is given to us as if we were giving away a state secret. As for who took part in the brainstorming and what form it took, it is impossible to know.

“He was taking notes”

His visitors assure us that the former European Commissioner was just as secretive in front of them. “He took notes, didn't give any opinions,” one of them remembers.

To learn more, we must analyze the diary of his last days. The Prime Minister received all the political forces, then the social partners and the employers' representatives.

“He also received personalities from the academic world”, his advisors added without any names being leaked. “What is certain, they assure us, is that all the good ideas will not come from him alone”.

Michel Barnier and his advisors are listening, but they are also keeping an eye on the polls, and they have noticed that Bruno Retailleau's recent statements have hit the mark. Matthieu Hebert, Michel Barnier's penman, who has been following him from the European Commission, will have to remember this.

Off-the-record reports in the press

He will also have to take into account the remarks of Emmanuel Macron, who received his Prime Minister on Monday, September 30, to discuss the day's speech. Matignon assures that the Élysée has not expressed any demands even concerning the reserved domain.

“It is a speech with national scope”, specify the Prime Minister's men. A way of saying that the President has no say in the matter. Lately, the Élysée has not hesitated to let it be understood, via “off the record” reports in the press, that the line adopted was not satisfactory.

“We are focused, very focused. We don't worry about the little phrases”, sweep away the “Barnier”s boy”.

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