Emmanuel Macron will spend “studious” summer vacation at Fort de Brégançon, the summer residence of the Presidents of the Republic in the Var, where, as every year, he will rest while following important files and preparing the come back, his entourage said on Saturday.
The president arrived Friday evening in Bormes-les-Mimosas with his wife Brigitte, the daily Var Matin wrote on Saturday, the Elysée not confirming the start of this “private” stay.
The Head of State chaired the last Council of Ministers before the summer break on Friday, after returning the day before from a tour of Africa and having received Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for dinner at the Elysée Palace. occasion of a visit contested by human rights defenders.
Back to school on August 22
The return of the government is scheduled for the week of August 22.
Until then, Emmanuel Macron will “follow important files and prepare for the start of the school year”, said his entourage. Among these files are “the sobriety plan” to deal with the energy crisis linked to the war in Ukraine, “ecological planning”, “the implementation of the National Council for Refoundation” scheduled for September or the measures to promote “full employment”, according to this source.
Fort de Brégançon has all the equipment to work, make international calls and monitor crisis situations, as was the case last year with the capture of Kabul by the Taliban or in 2020 with the explosion at the port. from Beirut.
For their part, the ministers were asked to “participate in the work” until the end of the parliamentary session scheduled “at best on Thursday August 4, if not Sunday August 7”, government spokesman Olivier said on Friday. Veran. The “mobilization” of the ministers is “full and complete” and the president told them that it was also important to “recharge oneself”, according to him.
The program not revealed
The Macron couple traditionally spend their summer holidays at Fort de Brégançon, which stands on a rocky peninsula 35 meters above the sea, at the eastern end of the harbor of Hyères.
As in previous years, Emmanuel Macron’s program is not revealed, but the president will participate, as every year, in the commemoration ceremony of the Landing in Provence in mid-August in Bormes-les-Mimosas.
He has also become accustomed to receiving foreign leaders there, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2018 or German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2020. At this stage, no information has been given on a possible invitation.
The fort, a fairly simple building with narrow windows, became one of the official residences of the Head of State in 1968. Previously, it had been occupied by a garrison for centuries and modernized by Napoleon Bonaparte before being decommissioned in 1919 after the First World War.
The state then leased it to private individuals before repossessing it in 1963.
Since 1968, the Heads of State of the Fifth Republic have stayed there for varying lengths of time. Thus, Jacques Chirac went there very regularly but neither Nicolas Sarkozy nor François Hollande became regulars there. In 2014, the socialist president had even made the fort accessible to the public in the summer when it was not occupied.
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