Next week, the day after the second round, priority to the economy: the Head of State will go to the site of the future electric battery factory of a large Chinese group in Douai - Xavier Bertrand, declared candidate for the presidential, is invited - then will receive 2 large French and international bosses in Versailles, before inaugurating Tuesday the new Parisian premises of the American bank JP Morgan.
"The result!": This is Emmanuel Macron's slogan to his ministers, after a calamitous poll for his troops, from which he carefully kept away, refusing to say a single word during his recent trips.
Just like hiccups or the passing of arms between his Ministers of the Interior and Justice Gerald Darmanin and Eric Dupond-Moretti who accused the first of "treason".
As Emmanuel Macron repeated on Wednesday in the Council of Ministers, for him it is a local election from which he does not want to draw any lessons at the national level, except on the worrying level of abstention.
The roadmap set for the government therefore remains to support reopening, deploy vaccination, support economic and social recovery and deploy actions in terms of ecology, security and equal opportunities.
It is based on the recovery plan of 100 billion euros, including 40 billion given by Europe, which has just been validated by Brussels. A green light staged Wednesday in the gardens of the Elysée, with a smiling Ursula von der Leyen.
Another satisfaction is that the rise in unemployment has been limited. "There was + 9% when it was + 25% after the 2009 crisis," said a member of the government. But the employment front, a key battle for 2022, remains tense, with around 300.000 more long-term unemployed, unfilled jobs in restaurants or construction and the influx of young people who have delayed their entry into the market. work.
Arbitration
If he intends to continue to survey France until mid-July, no one around him comes forward to predict his decisions.
Should the reforms be relaunched and if so which ones? Those of unemployment insurance, the only one clearly put back on track in recent months and which was to apply in July, has just been cut in full swing by the Council of State.
The pension reform, to which the Head of State is still keen - "the question is not whether, but when", he launched in the Council of Ministers, according to a close friend - is not being fought. only by the unions but by part of Macronie.
"The priority is to restart the country, and not to risk blocking it" with social protest movements, argues a minister.
The reform could, advocates a part of the majority, be limited to a simple "age measure", in other words increase the retirement age.
The Head of State is also expected on a "youth guarantee", the number of beneficiaries of which is debated between social ministers and bursars, and which would rather target young people who undertake to follow training.
The idea remains to propose to the French before mid-July a new project and to start applying it, to make it the basis of a program before the presidential election of 2022, according to his entourage.
The argument of "competence" is in the eyes of the Head of State the most effective to counter the candidate of RN Marine Le Pen, in a scenario of duel in the 2nd round always privileged.
And the "outgoing bonus" enjoyed by Xavier Bertrand like the other regional presidents could in turn benefit Emmanuel Macron in 2022.
"There is a feeling of dispossession, economic, social and cultural, which pushes the French to choose known figures", analyzes a relative.
For the rest of the five-year term, is a reshuffle to be expected?
"There will be no change of Prime Minister. He does the job," says a minister.
"We are not going towards a great ministerial evening," said a close relative of the president, who however expects major maneuvers. "His silence is heavy with possibilities," he slips.