If Mr. Bonn resigns (his resignation had not been accepted as of Monday evening), Mr. Macron will leave office as he prepares to navigate a world order fraught with instability and dominated by his incoming president, Donald Trump. , we will lose one of our most trusted foreign policy advisors. He will be sworn in as President of the United States next week.
“It’s a mess,” said one former French diplomat. “The domestic political situation, the impossible budget negotiations, Trump’s future relationship with Algeria, the declining influence of France in Europe and Africa… We will have to work hard to get back on our feet.”
It is an open secret in Paris that Mr. Bonn is looking for a new post after five years at Mr. Macron’s side. However, two people close to Macron said he was ultimately forced to resign due to increasingly difficult relations with General Fabien Mandon, the president’s military chief of staff. Mr. Mandon has been in office for less than two years and is “encroaching on (Bonn’s) turf,” one of the people said.
Another said, “There has been a fierce competition between the two sides for a long time,” and pointed out that it is not just a difference in attitude, but “perhaps there is a substantive problem as well.”
Tensions between the two advisers came to a head last week ahead of a meeting between the French president and Keir Starmer at the British prime minister’s holiday home, the Checkers.
The first person cited above said Mr Bonne and Mr Mandon had an “altercation” hours before leaving for the UK on Thursday afternoon. Bonne decided to cancel the trip at the last minute, the person told POLITICO.
