As coronavirus unfold by way of France, so did the gray within the prime minister’s impressively darkish beard. When Édouard Philippe often appeared on tv to element the well being disaster or define lockdown guidelines, viewers watched because the patch of hair on his left cheek grew, just like the bodily embodiment of the rising pandemic.

Was it his age, he’s 49, or the stress of persistent rumours that the more and more unpopular president, Emmanuel Macron, was about to dump his more and more widespread authorities chief?

Final week, after Macron introduced France had received the primary battle in what he described because the “struggle” on Covid-19 and life may return to close regular, Philippe put an finish to the hypothesis, telling Paris Match journal he had vitiligo.

“It’s not critical, or painful or contagious,” he mentioned of the long-term situation that causes white patches on the pores and skin and hair.

Public curiosity in Philippe’s beard – what the Royal Navy would name a “full set” – highlights the human face of a person typically seen as missing in charisma, however whose gravitas and reassuring tone – together with the occasional sardonic bon mot – have seen France by way of the pandemic.

Philippe was the comparatively unknown mayor of Le Havre when he was appointed to Matignon, the French equal of 10 Downing Road, after Macron was elected president two years in the past. He left the centre-right Les Républicains, to change into prime minister however has by no means joined Macron’s La République En Marche occasion. He’s up for re-election as Le Havre’s mayor in simply over every week, and hopes to carry on to each jobs.

The French media declare relations between him and Macron grew to become more and more tense throughout the official “state of well being emergency”, with disagreements over how and the place to finish the nation’s strict eight-week lockdown, and the date for the second spherical of municipal elections, postponed from March till 28 June. Philippe and the Elysée have denied any rupture in relations between the pair.

Philippe’s reputation stands at 54%, in line with a BVA poll revealed on Friday, up 13 factors in two months. Macron’s reputation at present hovers round 38%. In the identical ballot, 61% of these questioned mentioned they didn’t desire a change of prime minister.

Macron, elected on a “neither-right-nor-left” programme, is beneath stress from his personal occasion – from which a bunch of MPs has damaged away, ending La REM’s majority – to maneuver additional to the left.

Françoise Fressoz, an opinion author at Le Monde newspaper, instructed Macron needed to wrest again energy, and recognition, from his prime minister.

“Macron should weigh whether or not it’s riskier for him to proceed with Édouard Philippe than to nominate a brand new prime minister,” she wrote.