COPY LINK

POLITICS

Macron’s ‘attack dog’ faces fight to hold on to minister’s job

He may have been dubbed an "attack dog" by parts of the British press for his anti-Brexit sorties, but French Europe minister Clement Beaune is on the defensive in his first-ever election campaign.

Published: 15 June 2022 17:41 CEST

Macron's 'attack dog' faces fight to hold on to minister's job

Candidate Clement Beaune walks with former Prime minister Edouard Philippe ahead of the parliamentary elections (Photo by Thomas COEX / AFP)

After coming second in the first round of parliamentary elections last Sunday in his central Paris constituency, the 40-year-old’s cabinet job now hangs in the balance.

If he fails to secure a seat in parliament in this Sunday’s second and final round, he is expected to resign under a political convention that President Emmanuel Macron has promised to uphold.

Other ministers including environment minister Amelie de Montchalin also have their futures on the line.

On Wednesday, Beaune enlisted well-liked former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe for a tour of a historic covered market near the Bastille square ahead of the June 19 run-off, which will see him compete with a local left-winger.

All the big guns are out to shore up @CBeaune campaign. Alongside former PM @EPhilippe_LH, finance minister @BrunoLeMaire was also campaigning with him today. Alongside an endorsement letter from Jacques Delors. Will be very close. One of the real stars in Macron world https://t.co/IcacFaSCz8

— Mujtaba (Mij) Rahman (@Mij_Europe) June 15, 2022

“I think there’s a danger in this constituency… a victory for candidates who have made very radical statements, reflecting permanent aggression, conspiracy-theorist tendencies and lots of fake news would be dangerous,” Beaune told party activists after the visit.

He added that he hoped former voters of the “republican and European right” would help him block his “extreme left” opponent Caroline Mecary, who took more than 41 percent of the vote in the first round to his 36.

The idea that France faces danger and instability from the newly formed NUPES alliance has been hammered home by Emmanuel Macron after the left-wingers came neck-and-neck nationwide with the president’s Ensemble (Together) outfit in the first round.

The head of state warned Tuesday of “French disorder on top of global disorder” if his supporters fell short of a majority.

Macron’s attacks have provoked howls from left-wing figures like NUPES chief Jean-Luc Melenchon, who called the president’s remarks an “outrage”.

‘Never in parliament’

Beaune studied abroad in Ireland and Belgium before graduating — like Macron — from France’s elite ENA school for civil servants.

A member of the president’s inner circle, he was made junior minister for Europe after serving as Macron’s European affairs adviser and has enjoyed unusual freedom in the media compared with other members of an often-colourless government.

His tough talk on Brexit, including acrimonious cross-Channel fishing rows, earned him the title of “attack dog” from right-wing British papers like the Daily Express or Daily Mail.

In 2020, he came out as gay in a magazine interview and has spoken about how the capital’s main gay area, located in the constituency he is targeting, was an important part of his personal development.

Somewhat stiff and hesitant, Beaune let practiced campaigner Phillippe take the lead for much of the pair’s trail around the streets of the 12th district on Wednesday.

Putting on an affable air in an open-collared shirt and comfortable shoes, the white-bearded mayor of northern port city Le Havre joked with stall-holders and patted people on the back as he made his rounds.

Speaking to Ensemble activists, he vaunted Beaune’s big-picture European credentials, contrasting them with NUPES’ vow to brush aside European fiscal rules if they prevent planned increases in public spending.

Local fruit and vegetable seller Sybille Costaz was more concerned about local issues like new bike lanes hampering access to the market and fees eating into her business’ slow recovery from Covid-19.

“We’ve lost 30 percent of our revenue, but the charges keep coming, that’s what I told him just now, to help us, because it’s complicated,” Costaz said.

Beaune’s opponent Mecary, a gay rights lawyer, has made his ministerial status an angle of attack, telling AFP last week that “if he’s elected, he’ll never be in parliament” to push local issues. Ministers are replaced on the benches by a stand-in while carrying out their government functions.

“I’ll be an MP on the ground, who fights” for the constituency, she added.

‘Get a move on’

Beaune’s canvassing Wednesday was not fruitless, with one woman shopping with her baby in a pushchair telling him “of course!”, when he asked if he could count on her vote.

And butcher Jerome was more sanguine about his situation than fruit seller Costaz, saying there was “a good recovery” and “we can’t complain after Covid” — and confirming he would vote for Beaune after speaking to him Wednesday morning.

“It’s good that you guys are all pushing (to get elected), because you’ve got to get a move on!” one restaurant owner told the two politicians as they passed in the street.

But the pair were also heckled as “social wreckers” by pensioner Jean-Luc as he passed them in the street.

“They’re liars, they’re swindlers, they’re against the French people, just defending a little caste of the rich… we really have to beat them,” he later told AFP.

“If Jean-Luc Melenchon becomes prime minister, my pension will be increased by 400 euros” ($420), he added.

Member comments

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.