Paris (AFP)

By choosing Agnès Buzyn to campaign in Paris, Emmanuel Macron improvises an emergency solution which deprives him of a pillar of the government, a choice revealing the weaknesses of the macronie, according to analysts.

"Even if it is a valued personality, this hasty choice demonstrates the fragility of the Macronian system. It looks like patching up", comments AFP Jérôme Fourquet, Director of Opinion and Strategies at Ifop, recalling that still Friday, Agnès Buzyn said he did not want to be a candidate.

"While we are in the midst of a coronavirus epidemic and a social crisis in hospitals, the minister leaves the ship in a storm. This creates skepticism in part of the opinion, in particular those concerned, such as hospital staff" , he explains about the now ex-Minister of Health.

In the entourage of Emmanuel Macron, it is believed to have made the best choice, capable of transforming an acute crisis - the withdrawal of Benjamin Griveaux following the dissemination of intimate videos - into advantage.

"In a few hours, we understood that it was the right candidate for Paris," said a close friend of the head of state. "As proof, the feverish mobilization of the Hidalgo camp. Agnes Buzyn is the real remedy for the outgoing mayor: neither sectarian nor disconnected," he argues.

"It is awkward. It testifies to a problem of the pool of the running Republic and even a certain confusion of the majority", judges on the contrary the director of research at CNRS Luc Roban, questioned by Ouest-France.

The government has chosen to replace Benjamin Griveaux "a serious, solid person, who has a sense of responsibility" but "this gives the image of an urgent measure taken for political reasons, while important files are pending ", he insists.

- "Fallback" -

Same skepticism in Jean-Daniel Lévy, director of the Political and Opinion Department of Harris Interactive, who describes a "cornered" president. "He had not already had a hand with Cédric Villani. Then several potential candidates for Paris refused. He had to appoint someone who risks showing a lack of knowledge of Parisian issues," he warns.

Without forgetting that the ex-minister can be criticized for his management of the file of emergencies, where the social conflict lasts for 11 months.

The candidacy of Agnès Buzyn illustrates the recent evolution of LREM, according to political communication expert Philippe Moreau-Chevrolet, who sees in it "the withdrawal into a small circle of faithful with a political profile, the will to target in priority l 'right-wing electorate'.

To this is added the impact on the opinion of the succession of departures from the government, Agnès Buzyn was the 17th minister from the start of the five-year term, underlines Jérôme Fourquet.

"The list of departures is furiously growing, which creates instability", explains the political scientist of Ifop, citing the recent cases of Jean-Pierre Delevoye, dismissed for having kept a paid mandate at the same time as his position as "Monsieur pensions" to the government, and François de Rugy, who resigned after the revelation of sumptuous dinners at the Assembly.

The Griveaux affair "comes after the Benalla, Ferrand and Rugy cases… each time, majority political figures are called into question because of a certain way of life, a certain enjoyment of power", adds Luc Rouban.

"This brings back the image of a somewhat cynical, somewhat vulgar political class, which can give the feeling of playing with democracy, of playing on all fronts. , I fear, a machine to fuel populism, "he said.

"The popular categories, in particular, are quite demanding on these questions of morality and discipline. However, political crises are multiplying, and always somewhat on the same register," concludes the political scientist.

© 2020 AFP