Wednesday, May 6, 2026. Council of Ministers. Gérald Darmanin announced, with a smile, the appointment of Marc Guillaume, Prefect of the Île-de-France region, as vice-president of the Council of State. The phrase «a great servant of the State and of the law» is beautiful. It deserves to be examined very closely. For behind this seemingly technical appointment lies a comprehensive strategy. It is coherent, methodical, and fraught with consequences for the next decade of French public life.
An animal from the seraglio, twice forgotten, finally consecrated
A 61-year-old Énarque, Marc Guillaume embodies the perfect archetype of the high-ranking official in the shadows.
His career path is that of a highly accomplished official. Advisor to the State, director of legal affairs in the Ministries of Defense and then of Justice, Secretary General of the Constitutional Council from 2007 to 2015, and finally Secretary General of the government from 2015 to 2020.
This latter position, a veritable administrative control tower, enabled him to coordinate the texts, monitor the arbitrations, and secure the entire government procedure. Appointed by Manuel Valls in 2015, he was retained by Édouard Philippe after Emmanuel Macron arrived at the Elysee. Twenty years at the heart of the reactor. Not a single day in an ordinary court.
His reputation is mixed.
Le Monde noted in 2015 that he evoked «the same praise» from all those who had frequented him. Mediapart, however, describes him as «renowned for being accommodating with power.» His forced departure from the general secretariat of the government in July 2020 was marked by a collective note from the Elysee advisers denouncing sexist behavior within the institution without naming him, but implicitly identifying him.
His prefectural appointment in Île-de-France had immediately surprised: the weekly Marianne noted that he had «never worked in the prefectural administration, nor shown the slightest interest in this branch of the civil service.» In reality, it was a position awaiting a successor. A promise of a promotion.
In 2018, he had already been considered for the vice-presidency of the Council of State. Bruno Lasserre had been preferred for the position. This time, the Château has decided differently. The appointment is as much a consecration as a revenge for this man, to whom the position had escaped twice. He officially succeeds Didier-Roland Tabuteau on May 21st at the Palais-Royal. The vice-presidency of the Council of State had already escaped him twice. This time, the Château has decided differently.
The Council of State: much more than a court of law
To measure the real significance of this appointment, it is first necessary to understand what the Conseil d’État is beyond the austere image of the Palais-Royal. The institution performs a dual function there: legal advisor to the government and supreme judge of the administrative order. It issues opinions on bills, ordinances, and decrees, and ultimately resolves disputes between citizens, communities, and businesses and the administration. The vice president is its highest effective authority; the president of the Conseil d’État is, purely in a honorary capacity, the head of state himself.
In concrete terms: when a government resorts to Article 49.3, it is the Conseil d’État that issues its preliminary opinion on the text. When an immigration law is challenged, it is it that decides. When an expulsion decree is challenged in an appeal, it is it that decides. In other words, the one who holds this institution holds a key to the French state of law. And this key, Macron has just entrusted to Marc Guillaume.
A piece in a larger puzzle
The appointment of Marc Guillaume is not a mere coincidence. It is the latest in a long series of strategic appointments at the very top of the institutions, a process that has been carried out methodically since 2022 and that has accelerated significantly as the end of the mandate approached. (cf https://www.geopolitics.fr/2024/03/13/emmanuel-macron-mauvais-drh-ou-le-rates-de-ses-amis-de-lena-places-au-coeur-du-pouvoir/.).
The series begins in July 2022 with Emmanuelle Wargon
Two times minister under Macron, Secretary of State for Ecology and then Minister Delegate for Housing, appointed to the presidency of the Energy Regulatory Commission despite the opposition of a majority of parliamentarians. Defeated in the same year’s legislative elections under the LREM label, she nevertheless headed the French energy regulator. Three years later, in September 2025, she was elected president of the Council of Regulators of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators at the European level, another testament to her unwavering loyalty.
In May 2025, it will be Clément Beaune
Former special advisor to the Elysee on European affairs, former minister delegate, defeated in the early legislative elections of July 2024, who headed the High Commission for Strategy and Planning, a position of discreet but real influence on the long-term orientations of the State.
In February 2025, Richard Ferrand
The former president of the National Assembly and Macron’s companion since the early days of En Marche in 2016 was appointed president of the Constitutional Council for a nine-year term, non-removable and irrevocable.
Few Afterwards, Amélie de Montchalin
Former Minister of Public Accounts, she took the presidency of the Court of Accounts. At 40 years old, and given the irreversible nature of the position until the age of 68, she could theoretically hold this position until 2054.
In May 2026, Emmanuel Moulin, Governor of the Banque de France
Parliament validated the nomination proposed by Emmanuel Macron of the former Secretary General of the Elysée Palace, although many elected representatives from the left to the far right consider it too «political». It is being described as a global deal to avoid parliamentary obstruction.
Stéphane Séjourné could also be mentioned.
Co-founder of the Youth with Macron, bombed European commissioner after the resignation of Thierry Breton in 2024, a way to placate a loyalist among the loyal in Brussels, out of reach of the national alternative. All this after a visit to the Quai d’Orsay that one could describe as awkward.
The picture is striking in its consistency. At every key institution, a profile closely or remotely linked to the presidential orbit. At every departure of a guarantor of independence, a figure chosen for his pragmatism vis-à-vis the power. Not to govern more, but to endure in a different way.
It goes without saying that at the slightly less visible levels of the political-administrative system, the process is the same: promotion of the Macronists, obstruction for the others.
The question that remains unanswered
The argument of the proponents of these appointments is unstoppable in theory
All presidents have done so. The Fifth Republic carries within it this old monarchical reflex. In a recent work titled «His Majesty Appoints», journalist Michaël Moreau recalls that no one, at the Élysée Palace or at Matignon, knows with precision the exact number of posts belonging to the presidential power. De Gaulle, Mitterrand, Chirac, Sarkozy, Hollande, all used this lever as a natural extension of the executive power.
The question is not whether Macron invented a practice. The question is about intensity and temporality
The density of appointments at the end of their terms of office, their concentration on positions with long mandates, nine years for the Constitutional Council, indefinite duration for the Council of State, up to 68 years for the Court of Accounts, and their orientation towards politically marked profiles rather than institutionally recognized ones, all point to something that goes beyond the ordinary management of institutions.
In the halls of the Palais, some are quietly discussing the 2032 hypothesis. The Constitution prohibits a third consecutive term, not a return after an interruption. Others are expressing the will to hinder a RN that has come to power. Consolidating lasting links within the state apparatus would, in this reading, be a way to prepare for the future rather than to endure it. Marc Guillaume took up his duties on May 21st. He will provide advice on the reforms of the next president, arbitrate administrative disputes from the 2030s, and shape the jurisprudence that will govern public freedoms tomorrow. His appointment is accompanied by a game of musical chairs: the Élysée’s chief of staff, Georges-François Leclerc, is expected to succeed him at the Prefecture of Île-de-France. The least we can say is that the person in question did not impress during his brief tenure as Prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône. The game is on. The puzzle, however, is almost complete.
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