French press review 22 June 2017

François Bayrou has left the government because of fears that the legal troubles of his MoDem party might damage the Macron machine. Did he jump or was he pushed?

Le Monde's main headline assures us that yesterday's withdrawal of Justice Minister François Bayrou from the government has provoked the first crisis of the Macron era.

The man is certainly gone, along with his two MoDem party fellow ministers. What's hard to see is the crisis.

Bayrou explained yesterday that he was leaving the government because he doesn't want to have the Macron administration stained by the inevitable media frenzy surrounding suspicions that his centrist MoDem mates might have been milking the European coffers by using cash from Brussels to pay employees in France.

Bayrou says he has been assessing the situation with the president on a virtually daily basis over the past three weeks.

He explained that the ongoing case against his centrist party threatened to undermine his efforts as justice minister to promote a bill aimed at ending graft and favouritism in the public sphere.

"This law is more important than my personal position," said the man who waited 20 years for the key government post which he has now lost in just over a month.

Bayrou has promised to continue to support President Macron, to remain faithful to his political and personal relationship with the French leader and to serve a certain idea of politics beyond personal gain.

There probably wasn't a dry seat in the house.

But where's the crisis?

Right-wing Le Figaro notes that the man is gone as part of a post-election reorganisation which has left us with a broader-based and more balanced government.

And then you start reading the small print. Le Figaro says all this talk of three weeks of calm concertation with an admired and respected leader is tosh. Bayrou fought tooth and nail, and up to the last minute, to hold onto his ministerial armchair.

"I'll be staying!" was Bayrou's assurance as late as Tuesday.

And Macron, despite an official expression of disappointment at Bayrou's decision to leave, even a bit of friendly pressure to get him to remain, in reality couldn't wait to get rid of a man who has become a thorn in the presidential side, acting like a vice-prime minister, openly criticising the Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who came from the ranks of the right, and telling all and sundry that Macron owed his presidential triumph to Bayrou.

The results of the second round of the parliamentary election, which gave Macron a working majority, even without MoDem support, sealed Bayrou's fate. Once his centrist party colleague, Sylvie Goulard, had resigned from her post at defence on grounds of integrity, Bayrou had no choice but to walk his own plank. Le Figaro says he tried to rewrite history on the way out, insisting that his MoDem party still has a crucial contribution to make to parliamentary stability. Assuming they don't all end up in jail.

Macron? He's a miracle!

Left-leaning Libération says Macron now has the government of loyal technicians he wants and has managed to get rid of the troublesome and noisy centrists without tuning them against him. Clever fellow.

Better still, by refusing to name any Republicans heavyweights in his reselected team, Macron has deflected criticism that he is leaning too far to the right. He walks on water. He can do no wrong.

And the French president is all over the continental front pages this morning, explaining his foreign and European policy to eight top daily papers simultaneously.

It's all very clear and neat: the deep base of terrorism can be defeated by a policy of civilisation; Vladimir Putin is driven by two obsessions, the fear of terrorism and a desire to prevent the collapse of the Russian state; Bashar al-Assad is not Europe's enemy, he is the enemy of the Syrian people. And so on. Carefully reasoned, well-turned opinions on every topic under the sun. Clever fellow.