No one knows her, but she knows everyone. In the address book, as long as the arm, of Véronique Bédague are, among her very close friends, the president of the Constitutional Council, Laurent Fabius, or the former socialist mayor of Paris (2001-2014) Bertrand Delanoë. She calls by their first names the two heads of the executive, Elisabeth Borne and Emmanuel Macron, with whom she worked closely.
A woman in the shadows throughout her career as a senior civil servant, until heading the cabinet of the Prime Minister (2014-2016) Manuel Valls, here she is today at the head of the real estate group Nexity, the leading French developer. The co-founder and charismatic boss of the company, Alain Dinin, recruited her in 2017, when he left Matignon. He handed over the reins to him on the 1is January.
He says he had for her ” A favorite “. The first meeting takes place in the promoter’s office, as she seeks to bounce back into the private sector. Alain Dinin tells him straight out: “For you, I may create a post of general secretary. » A few days later, he meets Manuel Valls at a dinner, who says to him: “She’s too good for you, she deserves better.” »
“Cornelian choice”
The ex-prime minister of François Hollande is not the only one to think so. In April 2022, when Emmanuel Macron was elected for a second term as President of the Republic, the Elysée contacted her and offered her Matignon. She declines. Jovial, round glasses and leather Perfecto, Véronique Bédague seems to assume her choice when she receives us, on this winter followingnoon, at the headquarters of Nexity, in the 8e district of Paris.
“Prime Minister, it’s not a civil servant’s job, it’s completely different, it’s a political job, she justifies. Of course it’s hard to say no, we weigh everything, we think. I didn’t sleep for two nights. It’s a hard choice, but I think I made the right choice. Elisabeth does the job perfectly, and besides, she’s a woman, so everything is fine. »
Her friend Laurent Fabius, himself passed by Matignon, declares that she “had the temper”. “It was not the work that scared him”, he believes. Then what ? “She considered that she was not made for Matignon”advances Aurélien Rousseau, his deputy at Matignon under Manuel Valls, now director of cabinet for Elisabeth Borne.
“She said to me: ‘Can you imagine me on topical issues, if an opposition argument seems more interesting to me than our position?’ », he says. On condition of anonymity, a relative affirms more clearly that“She did not know what Emmanuel Macron wanted to do, and she was not ready to commit to this”.
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