Paris (AFP)

Weakened after the leak of a "note" on a cabinet reshuffle, the president of deputies LREM Gilles Le Gendre defended Tuesday before his troops, in an atmosphere of relative return to calm, by escaping at this stage a sanction of peers.

No "walker" expressly requested his departure during this long video meeting. "I feel indebted to each and every one of you to repair the bond of trust that was damaged" by the disclosure Friday of this note by the weekly Marianne, launched the elected official of Paris, according to reports.

Marianne affirms that Mr. Le Gendre sent "end of May" "working notes" to Emmanuel Macron where he seems to plead for a change of Prime Minister and proposes a new government casting - Mr. Le Gendre spoke of a simple "message" on the Telegram network and a "detailed cast" of which he would not be "the author".

"It is true, I wrote that I did not see within the group of candidates for the post of Prime Minister. But it is just as true that I wrote (...) that many of you could legitimately hope to return to government, "continued Mr. Le Gendre. And to launch: "Nothing is more foreign to me than contempt".

"The mission you have entrusted to me is of incredible difficulty, the current period provides a new illustration", he added while the context is already difficult for LREM, with the creation in May of two new groups in the Assembly with ex-LREMs, and a complicated second round of municipal elections in sight.

While in his note Mr. Le Gendre suggested appointing Jean-Yves Le Drian or Bruno Le Maire to Matignon, the president of the deputies "walkers" solemnly reaffirmed "confidence in Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and his government".

"The President of the Republic will be called upon to announce what he wishes for the rest of this quinquennium (...) When the day comes, we will have to draw all the consequences of this new mandate in the mandate", however underlined Mr. The son-in-law.

Part postponed for a possible departure? "It is not excluded when there is a cabinet reshuffle that there is a broader reshuffle," commented a parliamentary source.

- "No need for a stepmother!" -

According to a LREM MP, a provoked departure would be "inconsistent" in the sequence. And "after the great moments of hysteria of the weekend, the tension has dropped a little" thanks to "messages of appeasement, of rallying" in particular of figures of the majority.

Several took the floor during the meeting, including the President of the Assembly Richard Ferrand and the number one of LREM Stanislas Guerini, with the watchword "unity" and return to "benevolence". "Divisions are lethal," insisted Mr. Ferrand, with reference also to municipal elections.

Among the deputies most reassembled before the meeting, some even held words of appeasement, according to several participants. "Thank you for the words you have chosen", said Bruno Questel for example

Roland Lescure, who ran against Gilles Le Gendre in 2018, assured that he was "a candidate for nothing" today.

Some deputies were nonetheless critical, such as François Cormier-Bouligeon who asked including Gilles Le Gendre to "stop (er) to do belly dancing to return to government", or Jean-Baptiste Moreau who scrambled a note "from the level of commercial coffee".

It is "sad overall" and "nothing will come out of it either good or constructive," lamented to AFP a "walker".

"The fear is that there will be new departures (...) Because the impression is the evolution of the group to the right", according to a colleague.

For Gilles Le Gendre, "it's a reprieve with a month's probation", during which he must "try to close ranks before the new stage of the quinquennium", according to a LREM source.

President of the group of LR deputies, Damien Abad refused to "shoot an ambulance". Sébastien Jumel (PCF) quipped: "When you have a son-in-law like that, you don't need a stepmother!"

parl-reb / ​​jk / or

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