Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron was left scrambling to fill another key cabinet post on Wednesday after Interior Minister Gerard Collomb resigned, the third minister to step down in two months. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe took temporary control of the interior ministry while Macron began searching for a replacement for 71-year-old Collomb, who was one of the first politicians to back him for president.
The fate of Collomb, nicknamed “France’s top cop” because his ministry is in charge of security and immigration, has thrown the government into flux. Macron initially refused his resignation on Monday but on Tuesday night gave into Collomb’s request to be allowed to run again for his former job as mayor of the eastern city of Lyon.
The Liberation newspaper described the back-and-forth as “extraordinary dilly-dallying which seems more like something from a music-hall than government politics”.
Collomb’s departure adds to the woes of the France’s centrist leader, who is battling record low approval ratings after 17 months in power.
It comes just weeks after popular environment minister Nicolas Hulot resigned live on radio without warning Macron, saying he felt “all alone” in the government on green issues.
A stony-faced Philippe vowed at a handover ceremony on Wednesday to “maintain the highest level of security for French people” while in charge of the interior ministry.
Collomb, a political heavyweight, had indicated two weeks ago that he intended to step down next year to run for his old job in Lyon.
But he came under pressure to resign immediately, with critics complaining that his focus had already shifted to the campaign trail.
He has previously compared his relationship with Macron, 31 years his junior, to that of a father and son, and wept during the new president’s inauguration in May 2017.
But their relationship is reported to have soured this summer over a scandal surrounding Macron’s former security aide Alexandre Benalla.Benalla was caught on camera roughing up protesters at an anti-government demonstration, apparently posing as a policeman.
The affair blew up into a major scandal after it emerged that Macron’s office knew about the incident but kept Benalla on staff, only firing him after Le Monde newspaper broke the story.
— AFP
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