PRIME MINISTER MACRON. If he is re-elected President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron will clean up his ministers. The Head of State should change Prime Minister. Who could replace Jean Castex?
If he is re-elected President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron’s first project will be to surround himself with new ministers, starting with the Prime. Because after Edouard Philippe and Jean Castex, the Head of State will appoint a new personality as head of government, in the event of victory on Sunday April 24 in the 2nd round of the 2022 presidential election. Jean Castex himself announced that he would pack his bags. “After this election, in the days that follow, as tradition dictates, I will present my resignation and that of the government to the President of the Republic”, declared the tenant of Matignon on France Inter, Tuesday April 19. Resignation does not automatically mean departure, the President of the Republic being able to renew him in office. But the former mayor of Prades (Pyrénées-Orientales) says he is “one of those who think that a new impetus after the re-election of president must be found.” In essence, he concedes having to pack his boxes and leave his place as driver of the policy desired by Emmanuel Macron, if the scenario of a victory for the latter were to be written after the vote of the French.
While in view of the polls, the option seems more than possible, the name of the possible new Prime Minister of Emmanuel Macron is the subject of much speculation. Promoting a minister from the current government, appointing a personality who is still unknown or who has not taken part in the first five-year term, choosing a personality with more left-wing sensitivity after five years with a head of government from the right, or even appointing a woman… So many questions on which the candidate for his re-election remains mysterious, just like his entourage. However, several names are beginning to circulate.
Julien Denormandie, a Macron faithful appointed Prime Minister?
According to several indiscretions coming back with insistence, Julien Denormandie could be the next Prime Minister of Emmanuel Macron. The current Minister of Agriculture is one of the closest to the President of the Republic. At 41, this engineer is one of the Walkers of the first hour. In 2016, when he was deputy chief of staff to the Minister of the Economy Emmanuel Macron, he participated in the founding of En Marche, occupying the post of deputy secretary general. Since then, he has been in (almost) every government, except for Philippe I, who was in turn appointed Secretary of State to the Minister for Territorial Cohesion, then Minister for Towns and Housing, before taking the portfolio of Agriculture since the summer of 2020. A time mentioned to lead Emmanuel Macron’s 2022 campaign, he finally remained at the ministry to manage the impact of the war in Ukraine on agriculture. However, not enough to slow down the ascent of the quadra. “Choosing him sends no more signal to the left than to the right. At best he is seen as a historic macronist. At worst, he is not seen at all because he is not known and this is undoubtedly what pleases Macron”, had commented an adviser to the president with Paris Match. And if it is not for the first post-reelection government, if it were to materialize, “Macron will finish his second term with Julien at Matignon”, had launched this same regular at the palace.
Elisabeth Borne at Matignon 31 years after Edith Cresson?
What to leave, by then, the place for a woman? The hypothesis does not seem absurd. 31 years after Edith Cresson, Emmanuel Macron could appoint a female profile as Prime Minister. The name of a policy resonates particularly recently in the mysteries of power: that of Elisabeth Borne. A profile that could correspond to the various criteria that seem to be required if the Macron chapter 2 were to open: a personality capable, in particular, of carrying the perilous pension reform, of implementing ecological planning – the Prime Minister will be “Directly charged” announced Emmanuel Macron-, but also to come from the left when it is this political flank that the head of state is hitting on with a view to being re-elected. The current Minister of Labor seems to correspond to these prerequisites, she who already holds the portfolio linked to the main reform desired by the president-candidate, after having passed through the Ecological Transition and the direction of the cabinet of Ségolène Royal when she was Minister of Ecology, especially since she is presented as a former close to the Socialist Party.
A Prime Minister in charge of ecological planning
However, nothing has been finalized and Emmanuel Macron will not announce the name of the Prime Minister he would choose in the event of re-election before the outcome of the presidential election. Other names have circulated, such as that of Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of Overseas, also loyal to the outgoing president, or that of Alexis Kholer, the current secretary general of the Elysée. But his divisive personality could deprive him of a ministerial promotion. In addition, the Christine Lagarde hypothesis has been mentioned. But the current boss of the European Central Bank, ex-Minister of the Economy of Nicolas Sarkozy, should not leave her post for Matignon.
If the rumors will go well for several more days, Emmanuel Macron had all the same drawn the contours of the profile which could correspond to his future Prime Minister, saying, in Le Figaro, at the beginning of April, wanting to “always choose the one that appears to be the most compatible with what you want to wear for a given period. This will in any case suppose continuing to move forward in overtaking.” After a five-year term led by prime ministers from the right, the head of state would seek to unite on the left. It is in this sense that, during his meeting between the two rounds in Marseille, he announced new prerogatives for the resident of Matignon: that of “ecological planning”, a theme dear to Jean-Luc Mélenchon that ‘Emmanuel Macron has taken over. But who could implement this policy in the event of re-election?