French President Emmanuel Macron loses another important member of his government: Interior Minister Gérard Collomb has announced his withdrawal. He wants to resign the post next year to devote himself to local politics. The 71-year-old is already the third Cabinet member within three weeks that goes. Previously, Environment Minister Nicolas Hulot and Minister of Sport Laura Flessel had vacated their posts.
Interior Minister Collomb told L'Express magazine that he wanted to leave the cabinet after the European elections in late May. His goal was to be reelected to the mayor of Lyon in the municipal elections in 2020. Collomb was the second largest French city for 16 years prior to his appointment to the Ministry of Interior.
The former socialist was one of the first to support Macron in his presidential aspirations and helped establish his En Marche movement. Collomb is after Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, the highest ranking member in Macron's cabinet and is considered the representative of the right wing of the government.
Controversial asylum and terrorism policy
As Minister of the Interior he is controversial because of his asylum and anti-terror policy: Under him, the government tightened the asylum and immigration law and transferred many special powers of the authorities in the fight against terrorism in the normal legislation. On this basis, last November the government lifted the state of emergency that has existed since the Paris attacks in 2015.
The right-wing camp, on the other hand, accuses Collomb of being too lenient with Islamists and other violent criminals. Since January 2015, more than 240 people have died in attacks.
Also in the affair of the former security staff Macrons, Alexandre Benalla, Collomb came under pressure. Benalla wore a police helmet and struck a demonstrator at the Paris May rally, even though he was not a policeman himself. The judiciary is investigating violence, Benalla says on Wednesday in front of a committee of inquiry. Collomb said that he had known early on the allegations of violence, but the responsibility lay with the presidential office and the police leadership.
Opposition calls for Collomb's immediate resignation
The Conservative Republicans, as the main opposition party, called on Collomb after his resignation announcement to vacate his ministerial post immediately. "France deserves a full-time Minister of the Interior and not a man who thinks only of himself," said the deputy faction leader of the party, Guillaume Peltie, the broadcaster RTL.
Other politicians in the right wing compared Macron's Cabinet with the Titanic: "The iceberg is coming," Republican spokeswoman Laurence Sailliet wrote on Twitter. "Is there another pilot on the plane?" Tweeted the right-wing populist Rassemblement National (formerly the National Front) of Marine Le Pen. She accused Collomb of being responsible for "exploding" crime rates.
Environment Minister Hulot had also announced his resignation in late August in an interview. The former TV journalist accused the government of not having enough commitment to climate and nature conservation. At the beginning of September, Minister of Sport Laura Flessel also went on account of irregularities in her tax return. The departures come at a time when France's president is struggling with declining popularity.