• During their studies, Laurent Cibien and Edouard Philippe became friends.

    The first became a journalist-documentary filmmaker, and the second got into politics.

  • The director filmed the career of Edouard Philippe in a series called “Edouard, my right friend”, from his election as mayor of Le Havre to his involvement in Alain Juppé's campaign during the Republican primary in 2016.

  • “At the controls”, the third episode broadcast this Sunday on France 5, plunges us into the daily life of the Prime Minister for three years.

When he started filming Edouard Philippe in 2004, Laurent Cibien had no idea that this documentary would take him to Matignon. " What a story ! Ah well we would not have believed it! », The Prime Minister is boasting in his office in Matignon, tying his tie before passing in front of his friend's camera. The two men met on the benches of the preparatory literary class of the Lycée Janson-de-Sailly, in Paris. Since then, the journalist-director has filmed the rise of “his right-wing mate” and followed him in the campaign for the town hall of Le Havre in 2014 (episode 1), then during the right-wing primary, when he supported his mentor Alain Juppé in 2016 (episode 2). The third part, broadcast this Sunday on France 5 at 8:50 p.m., finally shows it at the top of the State.

During the three years that Edouard Philippe spent at Matignon, the journalist and the politician kept their ritual.

The result lasts almost three hours and gives a behind-the-scenes look at the evolution of a local elected official, from his appointment as Prime Minister, until his departure from the government, a year ago, on July 3, 2020. In his hushed office of Matignon, Edouard Philippe is at first smiling, phlegmatic, sometimes joking, then more and more tired, as the crises follow one another ("yellow vests", Covid-19 ...), and more rarely tense, like when his “leftist friend” asks him about the “anti-breakers” law).

20 Minutes

was able to watch “Aux joyettes”, and gives you a preview of some anecdotes.

Work is health

When he was appointed to Matignon, Edouard Philippe said he had lost 4.5 kg.

“It had never happened to me.

It was a week of apnea ”, he says, between“ anxiety ”and“ overactivity ”.

"I hesitated a little bit […], as one hesitates when one knows that one is going to do it".

A post of Prime Minister, "it is not to be refused", says the one who, at 46, was thrown from the town hall of Le Havre to Matignon, to everyone's surprise.

Then the camera films the effects of time and stress on the Prime Minister.

“I'm tired,” he says in December 2018. A little later, he mentions the spots that appear on his beard.

“I think I think less than before,” he observed in January 2019.

"Tons of stuff that can blow you up in the face"

What does the job of Prime Minister look like?

The documentary delivers some answers.

The files are almost innumerable.

"New Caledonia, Corsica, the situation in hospitals, the reform of unemployment insurance, terrorism, the start of reflection on pensions," recalls Le Havrais in his office in December 2017. "You've got tons. stuff that can blow your mind.

"

Then, in July 2018, this observation: “Here you are not managing the perfect world, you are managing the imperfect world.

These are oases, the moments I spend with you, ”he explains about the interviews with Laurent Cibien.

"Otherwise, it's always phone calls, meetings, trips, controversies, bad news ..."

The director also films them, whether it is a trip to Lozère in October 2018 during which Edouard Philippe is arrested by an angry pensioner, or a crisis meeting in Beauvau in the midst of a pandemic.

But the crisis of "yellow vests", which he did not see coming, he will experience from his office, every Saturday, through television.

A surprise resignation

In August 2018, Edouard Philippe was not aware that his Minister of Ecology was going to slam the door of the government.

He was not listening to France Inter when Nicolas Hulot announced his resignation on the radio.

“I was in my office, and I received an SMS from a friend: 'Hulot!'.

Then I heard running into the office next door.

"I thought it was a bit cavalier," he slips.

Asked by Laurent Cibien about his responsibility as a political leader on environmental issues, he replied: "On global warming, it can happen to think maybe that in 5, 10, 20 or 30 years, I will be criticized for not not having acted enough at that time, because it was the moment to make decisions.

Every day I think about it, but not only on this subject.

I say to myself that in five years, I will be criticized for not having increased efforts in medical research, because there will be a virus that we could not come.

"

"I make no good decision, I have the choice between bad ones"

Ironically, the coronavirus arrives in France and upsets Edouard Philippe's agenda.

We see him, surrounded by his advisers confined to Matignon, scrutinizing the figures, between two bites of spaghetti, and weighing each of the words to say on television.

One evening, he read to his team a text message received after one of his interventions: “Remarkable from start to finish, the seriousness, the concrete, no sentimentalism, well done, that was the tone, therefore the truth.

Fabrice Luchini ”.

Bursts of laughter.

“I don't think I'm making any good decision, I have the choice between bad ones,” he said on the eve of deconfinement, on May 10, 2020. “Even if there are a lot of criticisms, people continue. to listen to what I say when I am on TV.

If I said anything, they wouldn't listen.

"

And after Matignon?

At the beginning of July, Edouard Philippe made his cards while listening to Dire Straits. What to do after Matignon? At the beginning of 2019, during the campaign for the European elections, he evokes Sicily in the event of defeat (and therefore of reshuffle). During the movement against the pension reform, he expressed his first doubts about his retention in Matignon. "I ask myself the question because of the municipal authorities in Le Havre, it is the only question that matters to me", he specifies.

"Could you quit politics?" », Asks Laurent Cibien. “Yeah I think so, yeah. " To do what ? “Set up a law firm with friends, I know how to do it, I've done it before, it can be fun, funny… Teaching abroad, I would love that. I might as well resume my initial career at the Council of State, give courses in France, write books ... I would probably get bored a little, but it's not even sure. It would be a bit cushy. "

He will eventually declare himself a candidate for mayor of Le Havre on January 31, 2020. Elected in the second round, he returned to the port city on July 3, after the handover of power with his successor Jean Castex.

Facing the Channel, Laurent Cibien finds his friend on the right and asks him if he wants to become president.

“It's not a light question.

It's a fairly complicated question, ”evades Edouard Philippe.

While waiting to answer them, he will continue his tour of bookstores in France this summer to promote his book *.

*

Impressions and clear lines

, co-written with his advisor Gilles Boyer, (JC Lattès).

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Edouard Philippe decorated by Emmanuel Macron during a "warm" and political ceremony

  • LREM

  • Television

  • Matignon

  • Edouard Philippe

  • Documentary