A key argument put forward to convince Le Maire to join the government as defense minister was the fact that, thanks to his good relations with the German political class, he could help build a “Europe of defense” — an idea that remains just that, despite rising threats across the continent.
A quick end
However, on Sunday evening, a few minutes after Moulin announced the list of new ministers, which included Le Maire, the backlash began, startling the former finance minister.
“You can see that I am only a pretext and that the problem is unfortunately infinitely deeper,” Le Maire said on Tuesday in an interview with online media Brut, adding that he “didn’t realize that political life had deteriorated so much in just one year and had become so hysterical, so violent, so detached from reality, so polarized.”
Retailleau’s party was divided internally on whether to support Lecornu’s government and was just looking for a scapegoat to mask the party’s internal division, said one person close to Le Maire, who was granted anonymity to speak freely. Retailleau himself on Monday acknowledged that, regardless of Le Maire, Lecornu’s government would not have lasted.
Yet now the former finance minister and fiction writer finds himself transformed into one of France’s most famous literary characters: Benjamin Malaussène, the professional scapegoat of Daniel Pennac’s books.
Regardless, by next Monday, Le Maire will be back in Lausanne with his students and restart his life far from politics. Until the next comeback.