Repeatedly announced divorce was not held

Repeatedly announced divorce was not held. Two years after the arrival to power of Nicolas Sarkozy, the couple that he formed with François Fillon foiled the darkest predictions. Forgotten, the humiliated Prime Minister of the first year. The head of State the more scoffs in public, is mentioned more as a "collaborator" and brings more, in his absence, his favorite Ministers. The head of the Government do to object more public interventions of the President's men and is more evil back.

At the Elysee Palace, talking about "trust" reciprocal. It could be an exercise in language intended to reassure the cohesion of the Executive in times of crisis; It is a little more than that. At the breakfast for the majority, called every week to the Elysee, Nicolas Sarkozy now punctuates its long monologues of references to "François". Formerly sarcastic Ministers on the "Mister Nobody" of Matignon ensure now that "the two men have found their cruising speed. Supported by parliamentarians and with popularity always superior to that of Nicolas Sarkozy, François Fillon is less on the defensive.

All speculation on a possible cabinet reshuffle, it spared grand. They are blocked or not, the list of potential successors to Matignon is temporarily dry. The Prime Minister has even inherited a new nickname: "pumice: this is the type who thinks user it who wears.". In public, he hesitates more than hammering "the good time" for a Government, it is five years. A plea surprising for an also prudent, and that has not escaped to the relatives of the President. "He should never attach to his position, sliding one of them. It should not be leaving Matignon become a bitter, because this departure is registered. "As if Nicolas Sarkozy appreciated teammates while"pleased"but not too confident.

"It is not embarrassing."

After two years of cohabitation, Sarkozy and Fillon were fairly quickly gummed any emotional dimension in their relationship. The said complementary "No, they are too different for it" corrects a relative of the President, who did not need to remind the gap between Sarkozy the impulsive, emotional, yet brutal, Fillon prudent operation, always of equal mood. The same adds very seriously: "And then, the President did not need a"Supplement"." If you want to dive a member of the majority in an abyss of perplexity, ask them to characterize relations Sarkozy-Fillon. None found the words. Curiously, it is even fairly quickly that the two men are among those alongside them two competing readings, between those who consider (and not only among the relatives of Nicolas Sarkozy) that tensions have disappeared because the Prime Minister completely waived to impose and those who consider, on the contrary, that he was able to win a form of respect on the part of the head of State and certainly more limited than his predecessors space to exist.

For the collaborators of Nicolas Sarkozy, this is not a fold. The President of the Republic decides everything, invests in all folders and, "both what to do, prefer always get them from A to Z". And François Fillon "We informed", slides Raymond Soubie (social Advisor). "It is not embarrassing", continues Jean-Pierre Raffarin. "He understood that there is only a single debtor or credit at the end of the mandate: Nicolas Sarkozy", indicates an advisor. What makes say to Constitutionalist Guy Carcassonne "true novelty of this quinquennium, it is not that the President be hyperactive, they have all been at the beginning of term, is that the Prime Minister has so little field". Lack of courage, desire to protect his popularity or belief that there is no other way to do with Nicolas Sarkozy... Each observer has his idea, but all highlight this striking feature: François Fillon is not merely consensual temperament; Unlike its predecessors, it was not desired reform own to wear. "It is not policy to endure, it is to mark.". "It is interesting to see that François did not wish to print his personal mark on reform," noted Jean-François Copé, President of the UMP in the Assembly group, before continuing: "I talked about it ten times with him, he replied with a smile involved of nostalgia:"You know how is Nicolas..."." .

"If mark its difference, create unnecessary turmoil, is not the spirit of François Fillon", replies are at Matignon. Defect itself, the Prime Minister has used spaces provided by the institutions. Even the proponents of a vision Sarko-centered power him recognize a true "utility" to clear reforms to Parliament. Last week, Nicolas Sarkozy has willingly let him negotiate a compromise with the Senators on the Hospital Act. Elected officials recognize Fillon as one of them; They boasting her ability to "supplement the inadequacy of certain Ministers" by rapid arbitrations; and, above all, parliamentarians are the "reassuring" Premier by his ability to "give a global sense" multiple presidential ads.

The administrative force Matignon

At the breakfast of leaders of the majority gathered each week in the Elysee Palace, the schema varies little: Nicolas Sarkozy, "dominant at the table", is the disert, and François Fillon is sometimes "to give an administrative translation to the impulsiveness of the proposals of the President", tells of a witness. "He never opposed it full", said another.

The head of Government is more than a "super Secretary of State for Relations with the Parliament", according to the acid spades of the UMP MP François Goulard This theory has its supporters. Without disputing most of the political trade-offs are made in the Elysee Palace, they fall within the good agreement between their respective Claude Guéant and Jean-Paul Faugère rights arm and the administrative force Matignon. François Fillon, as Nicolas Sarkozy, multiplies the thematic meetings, based on this infrastructure there. Less to prevent the President to intervene it would be doomed to failure to deter Ministers to short-circuit the head of the Government. The company is more or less of happiness: the social and the promises of the campaign remain a preserve of the Elysee Palace, but budgetary arbitrations are more shared. "Two years ago, many Ministers had directly pleaded their case in the Elysee Palace, this was not the case last year," testified Eric Woerth, who believes that beyond the budget "there is a stage of coordination, and thus influence of Matignon. "As long as the subject did not become strategic", temper another Member of the Government.

A fragile, shifting balance

The Prime Minister is more marginalized but its "influence" is difficult to measure as he did media sobriety a shield. He certainly always championed a revival by the investment and refused to legislate on the compensation of patterns, but relatives confide that the President was also on these positions. Even when they cite the recurrent warnings of François Fillon on public finances, his advisers cautiously emphasize that it is "a pedagogy to opinion" and that "the President did not grow to deficits and spending." A precision because, in the entourage of the President, the repetition was eventually annoy: "the Prime Minister is not Bercy, this serves no purpose to shout before evil. "However, Nicolas Sarkozy has realized that, to an offensive Bayrou, it was useful to have a Prime Minister who takes a legalistic speech" grade a heavy weight of the UMP.

The key to their functioning, perhaps it is: a fragile, shifting balance, variable geometry "microclimate change very fast", is an adviser between Nicolas Sarkozy ahead of Prime Minister everything and its opposite that it fades and "deploys" and François Fillon which remains for him a mystery, but loyal protecting. By cultivating its particularity, the Prime Minister long annoyed the head of State, who saw in his sobriety and his a.d as many voices to the criticism that the press was on the presidential "style". With the crisis, Nicolas Sarkozy realized that these qualities that he did not could serve and reassure both the majority opinion. François Fillon was able to discreetly take advantage. Creating this strange coupling, commented by Alain Juppe, former host of Matignon in total: "Fillon supports on the part of Sarkozy in the things that others would not bear." It is both sufficiently indented to not be in conflict with the President, but at the same time it is not transparent. It is not wrong. Me I did in would not be able.