Emmanuel Macron has been weakened though to what extent it is impossible to say at the moment. But one thing is certain: nervousness continues to grip the ranks of his entourage. The start of 2019 has seen the announcement of a new string of departures from inside the presidential office, starting with the person in charge of communications, Sylvain Fort.
According to Le Parisien, who broke the story, Emmanuel Macron's director of press and communications will leave by the end of this January. Fort, who is a product of the elite École Normale Supérieure institution, passionate about both opera and business and both erudite and brutal in his handling of disagreements, joined Macron's team at the end of the summer in 2016, before the formal presidential election campaign began. He was one of the small band who followed Macron right through the campaign and then into the Élysée.
Fort, who is seen as a close ally of the president, never completely integrated the hard core of tight-knit loyalists – many of whom came from the Socialist Party – who include the president's special advisor, Ismaël Emelien, the person in charge of press relations Sibeth Ndiaye, and former political advisor Stéphane Séjourné, who recently left the Élysée to take charge of the campaign for May's European elections.
Initially the advisor in charge of speeches and commemorations, Fort took charge over all communications in September 2018, replacing former journalist Bruno Roger-Petit. Roger-Petit was removed from his post after he was criticised for his performance at the start of the affair involving disgraced security aide Alexandre Benalla, and is now in charge of handling commemorations at the Élysée.
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When questioned about his move on January 3rd Fort, whose relations with journalists have sometimes been awful, was careful not to give any political meaning or context to his departure, despite the fact that the Benalla affair has recently re-ignited with questions over the latter's use of diplomatic passports and his recent conversations with the president.
“I left everything to join Emmanuel Macron in August 2016, knowing that my commitment would be total as long as it was temporary,” he told the news agency AFP. “After two-and-a-half years of relentless work at the service of the candidate and then our president, I want to turn to other professional and personal projects, in particular to devote some time to my family.”
He added: “Emmanuel Macron's sense of nation and his absolute commitment to the service of France are what the country needs in these times of uncertainty over our collective destiny. I am proud to have served and I have assured him … of my total loyalty.”
Speaking on France Inter radio, the minister of finance and the economy Bruno Le Maire played down Fort's departure, saying it was simply to “spend time with his family”. Le Maire continued: “Sylvain Fort is an exceptional lad, I know him well, but the decision he has made is a personal decision.” The senior minister described the coverage of Fort's departure as a “storm in a teacup”.
Despite that, it is bad news for President Macron, and even more so given that there are also other movements of personnel in the pipeline. The departure of the international communication advisor Barbara Frugier was officially announced in the state journal the Journal Official on January 3rd. This had been expected and the Élysée had wanted it but it is not the only other change. According to the same official journal the advisor on Africa and the Middle East, Ahlem Gharbi, is to be replaced by Marie Philippe on January 7th.
Meanwhile Europe 1 radio reports that Ismaël Emelien has also asked to leave. He could in any case be forced to be kept in the background as L'Obs weekly news magazine says that investigators suspect him of being involved in the possession and/or the broadcast of video surveillance tapes on Twitter a few hours after Le Monde broke the story of Alexandre Benalla being seen beating up protestors at a demonstration on May 1st.
Meanwhile President Macron's right-hand man in the Élysée, secretary general Alexis Kohler, has himself been weakened in recent months by the investigation into conflicts of interest involving a shipping firm with which he has family connections, as revealed by Mediapart.
It might be argued by those close to the president that such movement of personnel is normal among a team that is often wrung dry by the exercise of power and the relentless demands of the job. And indeed, each presidency experiences staff turnover. But it is something which increases in tough times. They depart because they are partly to cause for the problems at the Élysée or because the political difficulties lead to a desire to be elsewhere, or a mixture of the two.
In this case the departures can only further destabilise a government which is unpopular and struggling to overcome the challenges of issues such as the 'yellow vest' movement. Earlier this week the government was at the centre of a new row after the arrest in Paris on Wednesday January 2nd – he was later released - of Éric Drouet, one of the leading figures in that protest movement. Some saw the arrest as following on from President Macron's attack on what he called self-appointed “spokespeople for a hateful mob” during his traditional New Year's Eve address to the nation.
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- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter