The alliance of the left within the Nupes "takes the slope of this ultra-left of the 1970s" which planted bombs, even denounced in the JDD the tenant of the Place Beauvau.

Gérald Darmanin explains that he sees "a very worrying complacency of political movements" in the Assembly with regard to the violence that has erupted in recent demonstrations, and refuses to "give in to the intellectual terrorism of the far left which consists in reversing values: the thugs would become the aggressors and the police the aggressors".

Enough to make the opposition jump, like the deputy and coordinator of the rebellious France Manuel Bompard, who criticized Monday the "excesses" of the Minister of the Interior, ensuring that LFI is "not far left".

For him Gérald Darmanin is first "campaigning" to "replace (Elisabeth) Borne at Matignon".

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin (r) and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne on February 20, 2023 in Paris © Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP/Archives

He "plays the Prime Minister at the end of his mandate" and "managed to have the confidence of parliamentarians, which was his weak point in the previous mandate," analyzed, even before the pension crisis, a framework of the majority.

"Hunger"

In this case, while Ms. Borne multiplied political and union consultations on her controversial pension reform, the former UMP deputy from the "popular right" current cultivated his proximity to the right, regularly receiving deputies including from his former political family, to prepare in particular the immigration law.

"Those who speak with the LR are (Gérald) Darmanin and (Sébastien) Lecornu," notes a Renaissance MP.

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin (L) and Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lacornu, on March 31, 2023 in Versailles © Ludovic MARIN / POOL / AFP / Archives

An asset for Mr. Darmanin, as the right is the key to votes in the Assembly where the government has only a relative majority.

"Gerald, he has passed the status of traitor" in the eyes of LR, "he is compatible," says a minister who supports him and pushes for a more "political" profile at Matignon in order to "pass reforms".

The person concerned recalls his political thought, the "social Gaullism", in the Revue des Deux Mondes of April, in tribute to the former minister Philippe Séguin: "firm on authority" and "social on the economy".

Gérald Darmanin is also close to former President Nicolas Sarkozy who pleads for an agreement between Emmanuel Macron and LR.

But his detractors consider him too "divisive", he is hated by feminists. "He's a man of beatings. It has no depth," said a ministerial adviser.

Gérald Darmanin "he is a man of power who loves power, and who is still hungry," said a Macronist elected official. Yet the person concerned denies being "a candidate for any other position".

"Excel table"

"We have a very good Prime Minister who is courageous and who has an enormous quality: she puts the general interest before her particular interest," he said Sunday, hoping that she "stays" in Matignon.

He even believes in the JDD that "it would be better to help him than to put banana skins on him".

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne (c) and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin (2nd l) meet with employees of Sarbec Cosmetics, February 9, 2023 in Neuville-en-Ferrain, North © Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP / Archives

Didn't he himself accompany Elisabeth Borne to her stronghold in the North at the beginning of February to discuss pensions with employees?

It was he who then took the microphone to answer the most arid questions.

A service offer that poorly masks veiled criticism.

The government "sometimes has a little Excel spreadsheet side that explains to people what they need without listening to them," he lamented on RTL Friday, while the Prime Minister, polytechnician, is perceived as very "techno".

Without saying so publicly, he would also have preferred a vote on the reform, rather than 49.3, which stirred up protest and weakened Elisabeth Borne.

Other differences emerge. The one who found Marine Le Pen "a little soft", does not want to choose "between the plague and cholera", LFI and the RN, while the Prime Minister refuses to put an equal sign between the two parties.

Secretary of State Marlène Schiappa, February 24, 2023 in Paris © Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP/Archives

And when Elisabeth Borne tells her minister Marlène Schiappa that "it is not at all appropriate" in the context of posing in PlayBoy, Gérald Darmanin says with irony that "being a liberated woman is not so easy".

© 2023 AFP