Paris (AFP)

"We're bottoming out," squeaks a deputy. Already shaken by the back-to-back constitution of two new parliamentary groups in the Assembly, the leader of the deputies LREM Gilles Le Gendre is weakened by a leak in the press which gives him a "note" on a cabinet reshuffle.

Gilles Le Gendre deplored Friday that the article published in Marianne contains "many untruths and tendentious interpretations of which each one will be able to understand the political intentions", in a message addressed to his colleagues.

According to the weekly, he would have sent "working notes" to President Emmanuel Macron "at the end of May", to suggest ways in which the government could be cast in the event of a reshuffle.

Re-elected as the head of the majority group in July, he seems to regret that Prime Minister Edouard Philippe "takes care not to intervene in the affairs of the majority".

And evokes two "favorites" to succeed him: the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian who "will manage the majority" but "will not support the momentum we want to give", and the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire , which "would perfectly carry the reconstruction" despite a "weak charisma".

In the LREM group, there would however be "no credible candidate" for Matignon. In other posts, he cites "the complex case" of a possible return of Manuel Valls, to Foreign Affairs.

Gilles Le Gendre says he does not want to comment on "the content of (his) discussions with the Head of State". "They are private and, as far as I am concerned, will remain so", in the message to his colleagues.

But he is already attracting some sarcasm and the group meeting on Tuesday promises to be hectic. "Already that it was not going very well for him ... But it is an honor to be reshuffled by Gilles Le Gendre", quips a member of the government.

Among his critics, the deputy of Eure Bruno Questel judges with AFP that he was "already weakened before" and "must vacate the place as soon as possible", after the second round of municipal elections on June 28.

- "It gets pretty hot" -

"We discover that Gilles Le Gendre therefore wants to replace the whole government (....). I have no doubt that he will explain this to the deputies", adds Aurore Bergé, reputed to be close to the Prime Minister.

According to several parliamentarians, "it gets pretty hot" in the group's Telegram loops. "He is dead," decides an elected official.

But "you have to see the reaction of the swamp, those who elected it. It had consideration for each one, gave positions. But if those let go of it ...", warn parliamentary sources.

The publication of this article comes in a difficult context for the group of "walkers", who lost fourteen deputies in May with the constitution of a 9th group on the left wing, Ecologie Démocratie Solidarité, then a tenth group on its right wing, Agir ensemble, which remains in the majority.

Previously, several parliamentarians had already left on the background of disagreement on the line or for the municipal elections, very difficult for LREM so far.

Walkers and relatives are today 281 in the Assembly against 314 at the start of the legislature. They lost an absolute majority (289 seats), even if they can count on their MoDem and 10th group allies.

Until now, a very large part of elected officials supported him and underlined the "difficulty of the job" of Gilles Le Gendre, with a large, composite group, and a good part of people without political experience before 2017.

Party towards the 10th group, a deputy judges that the problem of "walkers" is not linked to its leader, but to the "governance" of nearly 300 deputies. "It is very difficult to adopt common positions and it pushes to be very aligned with the government."

The 10th group, "perhaps it is a final alert which will make it possible to realize that the way in which we animate the majority sphere is perhaps not optimal", agreed Gilles Le Gendre at the end of May.

adc-parl / reb / ​​ib / swi

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