For over a decade, Alexis Coller was the shadow – or better, the “second mind” – of Emmanuel Macron. From the backstage, she designed, advised and protected her president France at every crucial turning point. Now, the most powerful but also the most invisible man of the Hall of the Champsles is leaving – shaking the scarf in Macron leaving behind a large political gap.
Distinctive, ingenious, serious and sometimes scary raw – This is how most analysts describe the 52 -year -old Alexis Collerthat has been for years Director of Emmanuel Macron’s office. That is his “alter ego”. He was on his side from the time when the young finance minister was planning his development in the presidency of France, and remained decisive in some of the most controversial political decisions of the last decade. Next week, Coler – also known as the “Gemini” or “Second Brain” of the President – He leaves the Mansion of the Champs -Elyses and, according to analysts, his departure will leave the two men with a “stupid dizziness”.
For the past eight years, his office has been just two doors away from the President at the Champs Elysians and was considered the most loyal and effective “guardian of the entrance”. In the summer of 2024, when Former EU negotiator for Brexit, Michel Barnier, He wanted to become prime minister (a position that eventually held from September 5 to December 13), it is said that he had to convince the colleague first to meet the French president personally.
“As for the president, he goes first. Does not even escape a party. “ The author of the book “The Invisible of the Champsles” had said on the television station France 24 in 2022. “He decides what information is reaching the president and which is not.”
Coler is often called – and not always joking – Macron’s “twin” and his “second mind”. He has contributed to every major decision by the president, from the demonstrations of the yellow vests and the Covid-19 pandemic to the reform of the pension and the position of France in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.
«Pragmatist and coolColer – five years older than Macron – translated the president’s risky “political instincts” into real policies, “her political author wrote The worldNatalie Segon.
Their cooperation, however, began much earlier – around 2012, when Coler worked at the Treasury and Macron had just entered the team of then President Francois Hollande.
The 2014when Macron became finance minister, he took the college with him as director of his office. Since, They became inseparable.
In 2016, Macron’s unexpected decision to give up the government to claim the presidency was one A plan he had prepared with the college.
‘Macron’s narrow circle is the colleague’, He said a source that is well aware of their cooperation in Le Figaro. According to the newspaper, the president himself has admitted that Coler is smarter than him.
Prefers backdrop
Of course, the course of the colleague, the closest and most dedicated adviser to Emmanuel Macron, in the Mansion of the Champs Elysia was not always rosy.
The 2018was at the center of hard hearing in the Senate for the Benala case – Macron’s bodyguard convicted of beating demonstratorsrepresenting the police officer. The colleague, who avoided publicity, hated the attention that this case caused to him.
In the same year, the Mediapart research site revealed that the colleague had relatives with the Italian family of Trenda, which owns the MSc shipping company. While serving as a senior civil servant, he allegedly participated in decisions concerning the company.
The prosecutor’s office has begun an investigation into a possible conflict of interest, but in 2019 the charges were withdrawn in the absence of data. However, in 2020 the case was re -opened and new research is underway.
This week, the colleague would have to testify for the Nestlé case – in which France’s top bottled water brands are accused of using illegal ways of cleaning. The Senate believes that the presidency – and especially the college – knew about fraud, but they made the “wrong eyes”.
Coler refused to attend the Senate, although he was obliged by law, citing the “distinction of powers”.
According to Le Figaro, he recently rejected a proposal to lead a state -owned company because he did not want to go back to public hearing. “He had sworn that he would not go through this again,” said a person from his environment.
His departure in mid -April to take over Vice President of the French Bank Société Générale, It is not surprising to those who know how much the spotlight is disclosed.
But he will be missing a lot to his former boss, with whom Six Prime Ministers and almost 200 ministers lived to go into the corridors of the Presidential Palace.
‘For over 10 years by my side […] Coler dedicated his energy, talent and excellent work ethics to our political plan and to the service of the French people. He served our country in an exemplary way. I know how much we owe him“, Macron said.
The colleague, as always austere, summoned his term with one phrase: “It was good. Very good, indeed. “
Philip Granted, a former Macron Advisor, was more moving: ‘Their separation will surely leave them both with one Illigid sadness »he told Le Monde.