“Emmanuel Bonne has the confidence of the president of the Republic and will leave his post when he wishes,” so reacted the Elysée on Sunday, January 12, to the announcement of the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron’s chief diplomatic adviser. The president’s sherpa, who heads the Elysée’s diplomatic department, announced his desire to leave the post, La Lettre first reported the day before. It was not immediately clear on Monday whether he was confirmed to be leaving.
It is not the first time that Bonne has threatened to leave the position he has held since May 2019, a record longevity. Le Monde has learned that his decision seems to have been made to express his anger at an incident that occurred shortly before Macron and his advisers left for London on January 9. The French leader dined in the evening with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, discussing the situation in Ukraine and the Middle East while trying to overcome the scars left by Brexit on the bilateral relationship.
That day, Bonne refused at the last minute to join the French delegation, in protest at not having been put, prior to the trip, in the loop of a confidential memo prepared by Macron’s chief of the General Staff, General Fabien Mandon. The influence of this aviator, as affable as Bonne can be gruff, has grown steadily since he joined the Elysée in May 2023. And he is said to be a candidate to one day replace Chief of the General Staff Thierry Burkhard. In the wake of this friction, Bonne decided to tender his resignation. However, some of his colleagues did not rule out the possibility of him returning to his office this week, once the fit of anger was over.
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