Macron’s inner circle starts heading for the exit

PARIS — As Emmanuel Macron enters the final year of his presidency, aides are beginning to abandon ship.

A wave of departures is sweeping through the ranks of his staff, raising concerns about cohesion at the Elysée Palace and deepening the end-of-reign mood there, with only a year to go until voters head to the polls to choose France’s next president.

With Macron ineligible for a third consecutive term and unable push his legislative agenda through a gridlocked parliament, staff seek to line up their next roles before the French leader departs.

Four senior advisers have left Macron’s team in the last two months, including two deputy chiefs of staff who are in charge of coordinating policy areas inside the Elysée.

“A year before the end of his term, people are thinking first and foremost about their careers,” said a ministerial aide, who like others quoted here was granted anonymity to speak candidly.

A bigger blow is likely on the way. Macron’s chief of staff, Emmanuel Moulin, is considering leaving his post to prepare a bid for the open top job at the Bank of France, according to two officials close to Macron. Given the president’s highly centralized approach to power, the chief of staff job may be one of the most influential positions in the entire government.

“There’s a hard core of loyalists around Macron that is becoming smaller and smaller,” said a former ministerial aide.

“Everyone knows that Macron is the only one making all the decisions,” the former aide continued. “But these key departures mean they are going to have to focus on tightening the bolts of the [Elysée] machinery to avoid missteps.”

The mood is such that even Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu acknowledges it.

“The closer we get to the presidential election, the more there’ll be an atmosphere of winding down, which is very normal, I’m aware of it,” Lecornu said in an interview with Le Figaro last weekend.

Deputies depart

Two of Moulin’s deputies, Emilie Piette and Constance Bensussan, are among those on their way out. Piette is off to head the RTE electricity network agency and Bensussan is moving to France’s CNAF benefits agency.

And shortly before the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran began, Macron’s top Middle East adviser, Anne-Claire Legendre, left in February to head the Arab World Institute, replacing Jack Lang, who had resigned over his ties to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Legendre has been lauded internally as having led the diplomatic efforts behind France’s push for the recognition of a Palestinian state.

An aide to Macron said leading the Bank of France is Moulin’s dream job, but getting the gig will be tough given he’d need approval from parliament, where Macron lacks a majority.

“They want to block [the nomination] just to piss Macron off,” said an ally of the French president.

Jean-Pierre Jouyet, who served as chief of staff under former President François Hollande, said a spate of departures like this is “serious and it can change the relationships within the cabinet.”

Jouyet said the Elysée staff needs “fresh blood” — dependable new recruits with “the right skills” — to tackle the challenges of Macron’s last year in office.

But instead, the French president appears to be reaching for old hands. 

According to one official close to Macron, his former deputy chief of staff, Pierre-André Imbert, might return to the Elysée Palace to take on the role of chief of staff. Imbert has “a wide-ranging profile” and “knows the president very well,” the official said.

Attracting new talent to sign up for such a short tenure will likely prove tough.

So, as the French president’s inner circle thins, aides are expected to prioritize crisis management over bold new initiatives in Macron’s final year. The upheavals of the international front will give them little respite.

But that’s also why, according to the same former government official quoted above, the French president will struggle to attract prestigious outsiders and high-flyers to join his cabinet.

“They’ll settle for internal promotions and top civil servants who are looking for their next posting,” he said.