While the name of a new Prime Minister is still awaited, that of Bernard Cazeneuve has been circulating for weeks for the post. The former socialist could correspond to the profile sought by the president.
For several weeks, the name of Bernard Cazeneuve has been in the pipeline for the post of Prime Minister. According to Politicohe would be well within Emmanuel Macron’s possible veins. The latter had also said he was ready to run for this position on LCI : “I have never refused to put wisdom where there is unreason. If it is necessary to do it collectively, I will always be ready.” He assured that his main concern is that “the country does not fall into downgrading, into ungovernability.”
Bernard Cazeneuve could, in fact, have his chances. First of all because he has already been at Matignon. He sat there for a few months under François Hollande (December 2016 to May 2017), succeeding Manuel Valls. Bernard Cazeneuve had previously been in government several times, whether for European Affairs, the Budget or the Interior. He notably faced the 2015 attacks in Paris. A member of the Socialist Party from 1987 to 2022, he then launched his own party called La Convention. This experience could correspond to the consensual profile sought by Emmanuel Macron.
He could also please the presidential camp thanks to his opposition to LFI. He has never hidden his aversion to Jean-Luc Mélenchon and had deplored the presence of La France insoumise in the New Popular Front. He also left the PS after the agreement between the PS and LFI for the 2022 legislative elections.
Socialists torn?
In addition, Bernard Cazeneuve’s support is increasing. According to Politico, the PS group would have as many elected officials in favor of Bernard Cazeneuve as of Lucie Castets, NFP candidate for Matignon. He has notably received the support of the former PS deputy Olivier Falorni, with Southwestwho sees in him a real potential to be a unifying Prime Minister: “the more consultations multiply, the more the identikit portrait of the Prime Minister becomes refined and, for me, he resembles Bernard Cazeneuve”. The politician also maintains good relations with Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the Communist Party. Last winter, the Communist had called for the Nupes to be extended to Bernard Cazeneuve “and his friends”.
On the side of the resigning government, he obtained the support of Gérald Darmanin, who believes that he would make a good candidate for the post of Prime Minister: “We are talking about Mr. Cazeneuve, he is a respectable man. I once fought him but he is a great secular republican. We could very well discuss a coalition with a socialist like him,” he declared on RMC August 27 as consultations to designate the new Prime Minister continue.
However, he is not unanimous, particularly among those close to Olivier Faure, the current president of the PS. “Bernard Cazeneuve embodies a left that has cobwebs under its arms, which we no longer want. A new generation has risen, and that is what we must talk about now,” he confided to Huffpost a PS executive. “It would be a total betrayal of the millions of voters of the New Popular Front who never voted for a return to the Hollande years,” also denounced the rebellious deputy Paul Vannier on his account X.
“He is not too “allergenic” for Les Républicains, which could allow them to abstain in the event of a possible motion of censure. But we have a problem: today, the socialists are caught in an alliance game with the Insoumis. Thus, if they refuse to oppose a centrist government led by Bernard Cazeneuve, they risk facing an Insoumis candidate during the next elections. In other words, supporting a Cazeneuve government would amount to the death of the PS”, analyses political scientist Benjamin Morel for The Dispatch.