Martin Malvy, Jean-Michel Baylet, Carole Delga, Jean-Claude Gayssot… Personalities from Occitanie remember the day they received a call to enter a government. Moving and sometimes tasty.
All the former ministers of the region remember the day when they were called to join the government. More often than not, surprise prevails. See “astonishment” pour Georgina Dufoix. It must be said that the Nîmoise learned of her first appointment to the State Secretariat for the Family in a way that was surprising to say the least: “I learned about it on television. In fact, it was my children and my husband who saw me on TV in Pierre Mauroy’s government. I had not received a call. When they returned, they m ‘ said I was on TV. There was a picture of me in the bullring”.
An hour after the television announcement, the prefect of Gard arrives at his home “in full dress, everything was made official. I was really very surprised”. This time like the others, the decision was made “with the family, because it is an upheaval”. Especially since Georgina Dufoix will multiply the posts: from government spokesperson to Minister of Social Affairs and National Solidarity.
The Rocardian Gilbert Baumet didn’t expect to join a ministry either. Yet it was Pierre Bérégovoy who called him to his office in September 1992 at the General Council of Gard to offer him to become Minister Delegate for Trade and Crafts: “I especially remember the Council of Ministers with Bernard Tapie and the authority of the absolutely terrible gaze of François Mitterrand”.
Jean-Michel Baylet on vacation in Greece
Jean Michel Baylet was twice Secretary of State (1984 and 1988) and twice Minister (1990 and 2016). “A great pride in serving France”, comments the one who was also the president of the Radical Left Party for twenty years. Four nominations, four different times. “The first time was in August, I was on vacation in Greece. I was asked to return immediately. The Prime Minister received me, he offered me four positions, I I chose External Relations”. he remembers. “The second time, Rocard took me to a reception of the elected representatives of the majority. He offered me the Veterans Affairs, I refused, he tried to convince me by telling me that François Mitterrand had once been secretary of the ‘State Veterans Affairs. I said no, I got Local Authorities’. There were also discussions with François Hollande. “I was promised a sovereign ministry, but Le Drian stayed, so it didn’t happen.” Jean-Michel Baylet landed an important portfolio, Territorial Development, Rurality and Local Authorities.
Jacques Blanc was in the hospital
Jacques White, was in the hospital. He had just been operated on for appendicitis when Raymond Barre’s chief of staff called him in early 1977 to offer him the finances: “I replied that I was very flattered, but finances did not appeal to me. I was more of a rural person, I asked for Agriculture”, he recalls. The Lozérien is recalled three days later, the time to make some changes with Pierre Bernard-Reymond who will take over as Secretary of State for the Budget. And to offer him the Secretary of State to the Minister of Agriculture Pierre Méhaignerie “with whom I got on very well. I lived this moment quietly because I did not expect it. I am not like a hundred people currently waiting for their phone to ring”he smiles.
Martin Malvy in the depths of Corsica
In 1984, Martin Malvy really didn’t expect it. So much so that he was on vacation deep in Corsica when, around 1 a.m., “the caretaker at the holiday center knocked on the door saying to me, I have the Prime Minister on the phone, is that credible?”. It was. Laurent Fabius has, in fact, found his future Secretary of State in charge of Energy by asking him to appear the next day in Paris. He accepted, it was in July 1984. In 1992, Pierre Bérégovoy calls him more soberly when he is at work at the town hall of Figeac to offer him relations with Parliament and the spokesperson of the government. The third time is still “Pierre Bérégovoy, we were at the National Assembly and he asked me to go for a walk on the Esplanade des Invalides”. He offers him the prestigious Ministry of the Budget even if “it was the most exciting Energy”.
Sylvia Pinel first says “no”
Sylvia Pinel remembers having first said “no” when Jean-Michel Baylet, head of the PRG called her to join the government of Jean-Marc Ayrault in 2014. After the crisis of legitimacy and the magnitude of the task, the deputy of the Tarn-et-Garonne will agree to become Minister Delegate for Crafts, Trade and Tourism. She is barely 34 years old in 2012 and is with Najat Vallaud-Belkacem the youngest of the government: “It was a lot of responsibilities, work, but above all a huge honor for a young woman from a very modest background for whom becoming an MP had already been a consecration”. Especially since a month after her appointment she became a full-fledged minister then, in 2014, under the Valls governments, she became Minister of Housing, Territorial Equality and Rurality and will have a system of the general code adopted taxes that bears his name, which are still used.
Carole Delga, first call for her grandmother
Pour Carole Delgathe announcement was experienced with intensity for “the little girl from Martres-Tolosane whom nothing predestined for politics”. Become a minister “I did not expect it. The first person I called was my grandmother, to share this emotion with her”. But the one who became president of the greater Occitanie region did not ignite: “I knew it was going to be hard. I was neither enarque nor the daughter of. I worked while never betraying my convictions”. The Secretary of State for Trade, Crafts and the Social and Solidarity Economy has had disagreements with her minister, a certain Emmanuel Macron, in particular over work on Sundays. A great experience but an end without regrets and a return to the lands of his heart: “I prefer the field, the contact with the French, to the gold of the ministries”.
Jean-Claude Gayssot surprised by the scale of the ministry
Jean-Claude Gayssot had known almost everything from unionism to the political bureau of the PCF through the role of mayor of Drançy. He knew he would be in Jospin’s government in June 1997 but was unaware of the role that would be entrusted to him. He learned it in front of his television with his wife Jacotte. And both were impressed with the mission: “The Minister of Equipment, Transport, Housing and the full Ministry of Tourism, I’m not telling you the sweats I had. For someone with a CAP as a draftsman…” But the Biterrois has worked hard to spend a long term of five years at the head of this super ministry: “It was an exceptional experience where I put the human and the dialogue above all”. And he keeps the memory of a very good agreement with Lionel Jospin, whose chief of staff at the time was a certain… Élisabeth Borne.
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