Should Bonne depart — his resignation had not been accepted as of early Monday evening — it would leave Macron without one of his most trusted foreign policy advisers as he prepares to navigate a world order rife with instability and dominated by Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated as U.S. president next week.
“It’s a mess,” said one former French diplomat. “The domestic political situation, the impossible budget talks, the future relation[ships] with Trump and Algeria, France’s waning influence in Europe and Africa …. We are going to have to work hard to bounce back.”
It’s an open secret in Paris that Bonne has been looking for a new posting after five years by Macron’s side. But it appears he was finally pushed to leave due to his increasingly difficult relationship with Gen. Fabien Mandon, the president’s chief of military staff, according to the two people close to Macron. Mandon was appointed less than two years ago but is “encroaching on [Bonne’s] turf,” according to one of these individuals.
“There’s been a ferocious competition between the two for a long time now,” said the other, noting differences in attitudes but also “possibly on issues of substance.”
Tensions between the two advisors came to a head last week ahead of the French president’s meeting with Keir Starmer at Chequers, the British prime minister’s country residence.
According to the first individual quoted above, Bonne and Mandon had “a row” in the hours before they were supposed to take off for the U.K. on Thursday afternoon. At the last minute, Bonne decided to skip the trip, the individual told POLITICO.
