Special envoy to Condé-sur-Noireau
After leaving Matignon, Élisabeth Borne took a few days of vacation in Morocco and “consulted a lot” in Paris. To “think”, indicates those around him. What does she think today of the crisis caused by François Bayrou within the majority and of the definitive reshuffle which is long overdue? “Faced with the country’s challenges, I am convinced that the unity of the majority is essential. Everyone must therefore have in mind to maintain this unity. We therefore need MoDem. And we need François Bayrou,” she replied this afternoon to Le Figaro, on the sidelines of a first trip to her Normandy constituency.
The meeting had in fact taken place a little earlier in the morning, in the aptly named rue des Drakkars, where a low, rainy sky then threatened the dozen journalists walking in front of the new sewing school in the industrial zone. Relate. We are in Normandy, in Condé-sur-Noireau, where the entrance signs to the D562 departmental road are always turned up in support of the farmers’ movement. In the heart of the Norman bocage, lush and waterlogged. More precisely in his constituency, the 6th of Calvados. A month, less a day exactly, since her departure from Matignon, the former prime minister had therefore decided to reconnect with her chosen land this Thursday before returning, next week, to the benches of the Palais Bourbon.
“There are different ways to get involved in politics. I am very happy to be back in my constituency,” she insisted during a visit to a fashion school, Fil en Normandie. Does she plan to be a diligent MP on the benches of the Assembly? “I will be a full-time MP and I can assure you that I am very happy to reunite with the majority MPs with whom I have worked a lot over the last two years. Above all, as I am not in the habit of doing things by halves, I can also tell you that I will continue to fight for my convictions…”
After trying a few sewing stitches under the expert eye of a student, Élisabeth Borne then took a stroll between the stalls of the Condé-sur-Noireau market, where she received a polite welcome, but without any real enthusiasm. Almost to the indifference of onlookers. “Prime Minister or MP, nothing will bother us,” squeaks Fabrice, a disillusioned fifty-year-old, his shopping bag under his arm. While another whispered “49.3, 49.3…” as he passed. Greeting the cheese seller here, the fishmonger here, the MP puts on a good face, buys some organic bread further on, asks another person how business is going. A woman, finally, asks for a selfie. Élisabeth Borne lends herself to the game with a smile.
A few steps from her, a few activists from France Insoumise distribute leaflets and joke about the arrival of MP Borne. “It’s not a return… because she was never there!” squeaks Noë Gauchard, former LFI candidate for the legislative elections. “False, the Prime Minister regularly came to the constituency when she was still in Matignon. In all, around fifty times including the 2022 campaign…”, corrects a colleague.
In front of around thirty local elected officials, gathered for a standing buffet in a lounge of the Villers-Bocage town hall, Élisabeth Borne in any case reaffirmed her attachment to her constituency: “I look forward to coming back regularly. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank my deputy, Freddy Sertin, who has always relayed to me your concerns, which I know. This constituency, with its peri-urban and its strong rural nature, echoes many of the difficulties that the country encounters…”, she insisted, before going to a farm in Maizet for an exchange with representatives of the FNSEA and JA.
