Elizabeth Bourne received a flocked 49.3 T-shirt for Christmas.

Will she accept it? The Prime Minister received a football jersey from the French national team on Tuesday during the traditional end-of-year dinner in Matignon, according to Le Point newspaper. Its peculiarity is the number 49 in front and the number three in the back. The reference is not to the number of the player, but to the constitutional arms 49.3, brandishing for the tenth time by the government in the absence of a sufficient majority on December 15 last.

If the dinner was an opportunity to discuss the coming year and its difficult reforms, it was above all “friendly,” the weekly reports. So some took the opportunity to give a small gift to their prime minister. “A collective gift based on an original idea by Secretary of State Herve Berville,” according to the minister, according to the newspaper. Thus, the football shirt was chosen for the World Cup.

Forbidden photos

Therefore, his team gave him the French team’s blue jersey, embroidered in gold, with the number “49” on the front and the number “3” on the back. The prime minister would immediately put on this special jersey in front of the ministers as he passed from one Matignon room to another. Many guests would have immortalized the moment on their phones until communicator Elizabeth Bourne stepped in and asked the crowd to stop taking pictures.

Government spokesman Olivier Veran, who was questioned after the Council of Ministers about the gift, which provoked a reaction from the people, declined to comment further. He only pointed out that this gift “does not come from his team.”

If its origin remains unknown, the opposition has already reacted. “Political cynicism, definition,” Nupes MP Sandrine Rousseau tweeted. “The question is not whether Born supports 49.3, but when the French will support 49.3. NO to retirement at 65 YES to repeal 49.3 These two slogans are closely related and form, in truth, only one,” Raquel Garrido reproached the rebellious MP.