For more than a decade, he was Emmanuel Macron’s most trusted adviser, helping the former economy minister stage an improbable coup and ascend the throne of the French presidency, and later, to implement one of the country’s most contested reforms in decades. Next week, Alexis Kohler, also known as the president’s “twin” and “second brain”, leaves his post at the Élysée Palace – a departure that experts deem will leave both men with “dizzying sadness”.
Discreet, sharp, serious and sometimes frighteningly blunt – that is how most political analysts describe 52-year-old Alexis Kohler, Emmanuel Macron’s long-time chief of staff.
For the past eight years, he has occupied the corner office on the first floor of the Élysée Palace, just two doors down from the nation’s leader, and has proved to be the most loyal and efficient of gatekeepers.
In the summer of 2024, when the EU’s former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier had the post of French prime minister in his sights (which he would go on to hold between September 5 and December 13) he reportedly first had to convince Kohler before he could be granted a one-on-one with the president.
In 2016, Macron’s shock decision to suddenly resign from Hollande’s government to challenge his boss in the presidential race, was a plan that Kohler had helped him develop. Since then, the pair have been more or less inseparable.
But Kohler’s time at the Élysée Palace has not always been plain sailing.
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