In the Fifth Republic, the president is the head of the armed forces and Sébastien Lecornu, 37, on track to have his framework law adopted in Parliament, has integrated it well.

The man wants to be as discreet as his colleague Gérald Darmanin, from the Republicans (LR), occupies the center stage. A classic Place Beauvau. But not really the kind that befits the Hotel de Brienne, let alone with the war in Ukraine.

The complicity of these two young hopes of the right passed since 2017 to Emmanuel Macron is displayed even in the courtyard of the Elysee.

Before being Macronists, Gérald Darmanin worked for Nicolas Sarkozy and Sébastien Lecornu at Bruno Le Maire. Five years later, they occupy the two sovereign positions par excellence of the government.

But when the Minister of the Interior, on the immigration side, is still looking for the key to an agreement with LR, the game is more muted for Sébastien Lecornu and his Military Programming Law (LPM), which endows the armed forces with a budget of 413 billion euros for the next seven years. A formal vote is scheduled for Wednesday in the Assembly.

Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu, left, and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, right, on May 16, 2023, in Paris © Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP/Archives

A real breath that this parliamentary debate for this "gifted politician" according to former minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet, passed like him by the Catholic establishment Saint-Adjutor de Vernon (Eure), political stronghold of the Minister of the Armed Forces. "He is one of the smartest in parliamentary art. He will make it vote, his law, "predicts a Renaissance deputy.

Even the opposition praises his attitude, the ecologist Julien Bayou praising "his patience, his work and his answers".

The Minister keen on History knows how to wrap a pike between two compliments, hailing the "coherence" of the communists opposed to nuclear deterrence... as in the time of Moscow. And taking care to insist on the differences within the left.

Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu in Bourogne, Territoire de Belfort, April 20, 2023 © SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP/Archives

"He is clever, we have quality debates but behind all this, there is always the strategy of the government to seek to divide the Nupes and to be more conciliatory with the National Rally," moderates the boss of the ecologist deputies, Cyrielle Chatelain. During the debates, the minister issued a number of wise opinions on amendments from the Front Party.

"He lost everything" in the Eure

The stage of the LPM is about to be crossed: a good point for the minister whose entourage estimated last year that Emmanuel Macron had "not garnered enough political credit from the increase in the budget of the armed forces" at the time of his predecessor, Florence Parly.

"Lecornu dreams of Matignon," says a senior officer. But one of his relatives defends himself: "he wanted so much the Ministry of the Armed Forces, he wants to take advantage of it".

A first consecration for this reserve colonel whose entire CV describes a professional of politics: parliamentary assistant at 19, mayor of Vernon at 27, president of the department of Eure at 28, propelled to the government at 31, to Ecology and then to Communities, before Overseas. Without neglecting to be elected to the Senate.

Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu reviews the troops on April 20, 2023 at the 1st Artillery Regiment of Bourogne, in the Territoire de Belfort © SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP/Archives

In the Eure, the list of his present and past activities blackens six good pages of his declaration of interest to the High Authority, from the Société des autoroutes Paris-Normandie to the public land establishment of the region, not passing the presidency of the Musée des Impressionnismes de Giverny.

At the head of the association supporting the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, "he is very appreciated for his important role of mobilization of elected officials during the campaign," slips a minister. In the event of a more assumed turn to the right, "it could be a good choice for the president, because he would not take too much light," said a parliamentarian.

"He lost everything, this boy," relativizes a former minister, who refers to the historic scores of Marine Le Pen overseas and the results of the legislative elections in the Eure: four RN deputies and a PS, very far from the Macronist grand slam of 2017.

"If Lecornu is Prime Minister, it will definitively consecrate that we are a right-wing party," worries a Renaissance MP, who supports the maintenance of Elisabeth Borne.

© 2023 AFP