Elisabeth Borne. The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, is also a candidate in the legislative elections in Calvados. She must therefore compose between the campaign and her role as head of government, marked by several scandals. Its result will therefore be particularly scrutinized for the credibility of the majority.
[Mis à jour le 11 juin 2022 à 11h46] Elisabeth Borne, appointed Prime Minister only a month ago, is already passing an important test for her credibility and that of the majority, since she is a candidate in the legislative elections, for the first time in her career in the 6e constituency of Calvados, where she presents herself under the label La République en Marche (Ensemble!). His result will therefore be particularly scrutinized, since traditionally, the Prime Minister is the spearhead of the other candidates to lead the majority in the Assembly.
Nevertheless, Elisabeth Borne has little chance of losing at the local level, in her constituency of Calvados, because “parachuted” into a favorable territory. It is at the national level that the risk is greater for the majority. Indeed, the latest polls have given the “New popular, ecological and social union” (Nupes) neck and neck with the group of the presidential majority. If Together! were to win during these legislative elections, Elisabeth Borne would have credibility, even within her camp and her allies, such as François Bayrou and Édouard Philippe, as head of government. On the contrary, in the event of a defeat or a limited victory, she would surely be threatened and her position with it.
Freshly appointed Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne had to lead a double campaign, local and national. The latter being marked by many burning issues at the start of the five-year term (purchasing power with much-awaited aid to limit the effects of inflation, a new pension or education reform, the ecological planning promised by Emmanuel Macron…).
The Way of the Cross has already begun for Elisabeth Borne
This legislative campaign will not have been easy for Elisabeth Borne, confronted, from the choice of her government, with the case of Damien Abad, appointed Minister of Solidarity, accused of rape. A case revealed by Mediapart, only two days after his appointment, which he contested with “the greatest force”. In the hot seat, he was finally kept in government. And then, much more recently, it was the incidents around the Stade de France, during the Champions League final, which marked the start of the Prime Minister’s exercise.
The incidents near the Stade de France, during the Champions League final, on May 28, will also have cut through the legislative campaign of Élisabeth Borne. The kick-off of the match had been delayed by half an hour, with the impossibility for hundreds of supporters, with valid tickets, to enter the stadium. The police had also used tear gas to disperse people around the stadium, showing a disastrous organization in the eyes of the world. The prefect of police ended up recognizing it this week, after the denials of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin and the argument of counterfeit notes which struggled to convince.
The announcement of the removal of CCTV images of the evening at the Stade de France did not help the government to manage this controversy. They have been accused, in particular by the opposition, of not having ensured that all the images would be kept, even of “destruction of evidence” to cover up possible shortcomings by the organizers and the police, even speaking of “state scandal”.
The alleged abuses of the police at the Stade de France, denounced by a large part of the left, echoed the death of a passenger in a vehicle in the 18e district of Paris during a police check last Saturday. The police, who opened fire on the vehicle, also injured the driver. Elisabeth Borne will once again have been forced to step up after the leader of rebellious France Jean-Luc Mélenchon wrote on social networks that “the police kill”. “I find it very shocking the way Jean-Luc Mélenchon systematically attacks the police with totally outrageous remarks”, commented the Prime Minister, referring to “an ongoing judicial investigation” and “an investigation by the ‘IGPN’. “The police, if they are in self-defense, they can open fire,” she recalled. The driver of the vehicle, suspected of refusing to comply, has since been indicted.
Leader and candidate, Elisabeth Borne will have tried somehow to campaign in this particular context, often proving to be inaudible. The Prime Minister, who has multiplied interventions in the media and trips to the field, ended with a handful of lightning raids in Versailles or even in the Côtes-d’Armor this week. During a meeting in Vire on Wednesday evening, in the 6th constituency of Calvados where she is herself a candidate, the Prime Minister again emphasized purchasing power and the measures promised by the government to respond to the inflation that is taking over the country.
After having assured that the State was not earning any money on fuel taxes, in the midst of soaring gasoline prices, the patron of the government reiterated her intention to “protect purchasing power”, in particular with the ” tariff shield” (on electricity and gas prices) extended until the end of the year and costing “20 to 25 billion in expenditure” for the State. Elisabeth Borne also returned to the aid for the most modest promised in September in the face of rising prices, with the direct payment of emergency compensation while waiting for a “food voucher”, as well as the revaluation of 4% of all retreats in July.
No doubt drawing lessons from the presidential election where the subject was put forward late, the Prime Minister is thus trying to hammer home that the government is acting for the portfolio of the French, at the end of a sluggish campaign. A legislative campaign dominated in the media by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Nupes who have constantly castigated the government’s record and intentions in the social field. Latest proof: the outcry caused by Elisabeth Borne herself during an exchange on the radio with a disabled person on Tuesday.
The pangs of national politics will not have prevented Elisabeth Borne from leading a “field” campaign in Calvados according to those around her. Once the new government was appointed, she decided to maintain her candidacy in the 6th constituency of Calvados: at the Palais Bourbon, from Tuesday May 17, during a meeting with the deputies of the majority she tried to motivate her troops. “I see that you are all on the ground to carry our project. I am also in the campaign, I say it, I continue this campaign!”
Never elected, the former Minister of Labor, originally from Normandy, was in fact herself invested in the 6th constituency of Calvados, which had placed Emmanuel Macron clearly in the lead in the two rounds of the presidential election (31% of the votes in the first round ). She faces Noé Gauchard, a 22-year-old environmental student who represents Nupes in this constituency and Jean-Philippe Roy for the National Rally. Alain Touret, the outgoing LREM deputy, is leaving his post after three terms as deputy since 1997. He was elected 5 years ago with 68% of the vote.
In an Ifop-Fiducial poll published this week, Elisabeth Borne was declared the winner with a first place in the first round and 39% of the vote. Noé Gauchard (Nupes) was credited with 26% of the vote when Jean-Philippe Roy (RN) was given 15% of the vote. The other candidates in the constituency are all under 10%, depriving them a priori of any chance of reaching the second round.
Who is Elisabeth Borne? Express Biography
Before being appointed Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne was Minister of Labor in the Castex government, after having held the portfolios of Transport and Ecological Transition since 2017. Relatively little known to the French, which can constitute “an asset” in her new functions, it was however “more so than were Édouard Philippe and especially Jean Castex” when they arrived at Matignon.
A graduate of Polytechnique, a tenacious technician, deemed loyal, Elisabeth Borne is in any case perceived by Macronie as having proven herself in government throughout the last five-year term. This former chief of staff of Ségolène Royal, who was also prefect and leader of large public companies such as the RATP, also has the merit of belonging to the left wing of the majority, an asset in the run-up to the legislative elections and the he hour when new social reforms are announced, starting with “the mother of the battles” on pensions.
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Her appointment was, however, viewed with caution by some members of the presidential party, sharing the opinion of many pillars of the opposition on one point: Elizabeth Borne is above all a senior civil servant, with a sense of state that borders on administrative loyalty. The profile of this engineer would not be “political enough” in their eyes and should leave plenty of room for Emmanuel Macron in this perimeter.