PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron’s top diplomatic adviser Emmanuel Bonne plunged the president’s inner circle into uncertainty last week when he announced he was throwing in the towel.
Bonne, a linchpin of the diplomatic corps who has often acted as a quasi-shadow foreign minister, told Macron he was resigning on Friday, according to two people close to the French president.
Bonne’s resignation, which was first reported by the La Lettre newsletter and was later confirmed by POLITICO, came as a heated rivalry with another top aide reached a boiling point and amid a significant policy dispute within Macron’s administration.
Should Bonne depart — his resignation had not been accepted as of early Monday evening — it would leave Macron without one of his most trusted foreign policy advisers as he prepares to navigate a world order rife with instability and dominated by Donald Trump, who will be inaugurated as U.S. president next week.
“It’s a mess,” said one former French diplomat. “The domestic political situation, the impossible budget talks, the future relation[ships] with Trump and Algeria, France’s waning influence in Europe and Africa …. We are going to have to work hard to bounce back.”
It’s an open secret in Paris that Bonne has been looking for a new posting after five years by Macron’s side. But it appears he was finally pushed to leave due to his increasingly difficult relationship with Gen. Fabien Mandon, the president’s chief of military staff, according to the two people close to Macron. Mandon was appointed less than two years ago but is “encroaching on [Bonne’s] turf,” according to one of these individuals.
“There’s been a ferocious competition between the two for a long time now,” said the other, noting differences in attitudes but also “possibly on issues of substance.”
Tensions between the two advisors came to a head last week ahead of the French president’s meeting with Keir Starmer at Chequers, the British prime minister’s country residence.
According to the first individual quoted above, Bonne and Mandon had “a row” in the hours before they were supposed to take off for the U.K. on Thursday afternoon. At the last minute, Bonne decided to skip the trip, the individual told POLITICO.
When asked about Bonne’s resignation on Sunday, an Elys´´ee official said: “Emmanuel Bonne enjoys the trust of the president of the Republic and will leave his post when he wishes to.”
Beyond quarrels with cabinet colleagues, Macron’s chief diplomatic advisor has not always been completely aligned with the French president’s own positions on foreign policy. Macron last year took Morocco’s side in a long-running regional dispute with Algeria when he decided to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, following a failed attempt at reconciliation with Algiers.
Bonne on the other hand favored a more neutral approach, in keeping with long-standing French diplomatic policy, according to two people familiar with his thinking.
Repeated turf wars on Algerian policy have exhausted Bonne, the two people said. France’s Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau waded in last week as well, accusing Algiers of trying to “humiliate” France in a row over influencers.
On Monday, French Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin also weighed in, calling for an end to visa-free admission to France for Algerian officials.
The post ‘It’s a mess’: Macron’s inner circle in turmoil after top adviser says he’s resigning appeared first on Politico.
