On the front line, Gabriel Attal and Gérald Darmanin consolidate their image
Keep a cool head. It’s an expression that, in the face of good polls, Gabriel Attal’s close guard, “the pack”, as this handful of advisors sometimes call themselves, has regularly repeated since the start of the school year. And in recent days, if needed, the tragic news has helped. Because the Minister of National Education, after the Islamist attack in Arras, finds himself on the front line facing a traumatized educational community and worried parents.
Also on the front line, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. Both have since been on an assault of firmness. In turn, they stepped up to the plate on TF1. This Thursday evening again, it was a message of firmness that everyone had to distill, the Minister of the Interior on BFMTV, that of National Education on France 2, where he was to announce measures on the monitoring of radicalized students.
Two “political animals”
Current events oblige, Gabriel Attal and Gérald Darmanin saturate the airwaves, each in their role and sometimes together as after the Hamas attacks, visiting an Ozar Hatorah school in Sarcelles to see the strengthening of security measures. But they also give the impression, under the sometimes stunned, if not annoyed, gaze of their government colleagues, of having launched themselves, rather than in a duo, into a duel.
Because it is not just the news that carries these two “political animals” of the Borne 3 government. Both, with very different political and personal backgrounds, harbor great ambitions. Gérald Darmanin returned to Tourcoing at the end of August with “two major objectives”, according to a close friend: “to make a popular event” and “to show that he was capable of expanding the majority”. The same evening, it was Gabriel Attal “who caused the event by announcing the ban on the abaya at school,” observed a member of the government with a squeak.
Kick in the anthill
At the beginning of October, it was an Ifop survey which heated things up somewhat. It was published the weekend when the Renaissance party was back to school. The day when, also, Gérald Darmanin, kicked the anthill in an interview with “Parisien”. While believing that Edouard Philippe is “best placed” for 2027, he questioned the desire and the project of the former Prime Minister and assured that he himself “wants to serve [his] country” .
In this Ifop survey, when asked who would represent Emmanuel Macron’s camp well in 2027, Gabriel Attal came first, with 57%, ahead of Edouard Philippe (55%). But Gérald Darmanin was also on the podium, at 49%. “Gabriel Attal, who has not made the beginning of a candidacy outline, seems capable of bringing his camp together. Gérald Darmanin, seen as closer to Nicolas Sarkozy, more to the right, is considered legitimate,” notes Frédéric Dabi, general opinion director of the Ifop group.
Risks of a gap between words and actions
“There is clearly something going on between the French and Gabriel Attal. It is perfectly in line with what the French expect from politics: to change life,” analyzes the pollster, for whom he has posed, with the ban on the abaya, an “act of authority”.
He is also seen as the “minister of common sense”, he continues, with the emphasis on the fundamentals, the movement from March to June of the baccalaureate specialty tests or even the courses for middle school students up to the end of the year… But even more important in their eyes, the fight against harassment. “He is the one who takes charge of an issue that terrorizes parents, whatever their background,” says Frédéric Dabi.
As for Gérald Darmanin, older in the political field, with more developed networks and local roots, “his strength is that the French have the feeling that he does not avoid problems, he speaks up ; it’s a bit like Nicolas Sarkozy’s strategy between 2002 and 2007. Despite his failures like the Stade de France, or the very strong suspicions about the regalian vis-à-vis Emmanuel Macron, he managed to have real credibility” , analyzes Frédéric Dabi, “but the risks are greater of a gap between words and actions”.
This risk, for both, is obviously closely monitored. “The abaya is good, it had to be done, but in the end, that’s not what Gabriel will be judged on. The question for parents is, does my child have teachers and has his level increased?… And for that, his ministry is very difficult. For Gérald, it’s the same, he will be judged on efficiency: do the French feel safer? » sneers a minister.
They are well aware that their political future is partly indexed to their results.
This article is originally published on lesechos.fr
