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“He doesn’t like a lot … to be in entrance and to be seen,” mentioned Dacian Cioloș, a former Romanian prime minister and Séjourné’s predecessor because the chief of the Renew group within the European Parliament. “It was not my feeling that he invests power in his personal picture, and he needs outcomes, he needs to work in a workforce.”
What’s extra, Séjourné returns to Brussels not basking in latest glory, however licking his wounds after two election defeats and an unremarkable stint as France’s high diplomat.
The centrist Renew Europe group he led for simply over two years misplaced 1 / 4 of its members, together with 10 French MEPs, in June’s European election. Séjourné, who nonetheless leads Macron’s Renaissance party till a successor is elected within the coming months, additionally oversaw a defeat on the snap election Macron known as in response to that EU-level drubbing.
Before his nomination as European commissioner, Séjourné’s fortunes appeared on the wane as his place in authorities and because the head of the Renaissance party had been anticipated to finish.
Our man in Brussels
One of the president’s earliest supporters, Séjourné met him throughout a job interview in 2014 when Macron was an economic system minister searching for to emerge from a political panorama dominated by Socialist heavyweights. Séjourné, the son of a France Telecom manager and a switchboard operator, was considered one of a band of political wannabes generally known as the “Macron boys” or “the Mormons,” nicknames they earned as a result of they tended to stay collectively like a close-knit spiritual neighborhood.
Séjourné’s political fortunes rose steadily underneath the mentorship of Macron. He first served as an adviser on the Elysée Palace in 2017, then as an MEP for Macron’s Renaissance party in 2019, and eventually as president of the Renew group within the European Parliament in 2021. This previous January, Séjourné turned Macron’s overseas minister — a job he held till new French Prime Minister Michel Barnier unveiled his authorities final month.
