CASTEX. As he had announced, Jean Castex will present his resignation as well as that of the government. Will it be given this Thursday, April 28, 2022 to Emmanuel Macron, after the Council of Ministers?
Last last stand for Jean Castex and his ministers. This Thursday, April 28, 2022, the government is meeting at the Elysée Palace for what appears to be the last Council of Ministers of the current team. The Prime Minister must indeed submit the resignation of his government to Emmanuel Macron shortly, in accordance with his commitment made before the victory of the Head of State. “If the president is re-elected, the republican custom is that, in the days that follow, the Prime Minister submits the resignation of his government. I will comply with this republican custom,” said the tenant of Matignon. It remains to know the date. No legal text sets an official timetable. However, it does not appear incongruous that Jean Castex can present his resignation as well as that of his government this Thursday, during the traditional weekly government meeting. However, the former mayor of Prades (Pyrénées-Orientales) and ex-Mr. Government Olympics has until May 13: it is on this date that the current mandate of Emmanuel Macron expires, the latter having to appoint a new government before this deadline. The resignation of Jean Castex and the government could therefore also be submitted during the Council of Ministers of May 4 or 11. Or on any other date during this period.
It is an almost unprecedented scenario that presents itself here, a symbol of the upheaval in politics caused by Emmanuel Macron since 2017. For the first time since the re-election of General de Gaulle in 1965, an outgoing president has been re-elected with a governmental and parliamentary majority. Otherwise, either the elected Head of State was from a different political side than the previous one, or his re-election had been obtained following a period of cohabitation. Jean Castex therefore finds himself there in a particular situation. If he announced that he would submit his resignation as well as that of his government, no text of law obliges him to do so. Nothing can force him to leave Matignon. Especially since the President of the Republic does not explicitly have the right to dismiss his Prime Minister. A departure is made at the request of the Head of State or by resignation. Jean Castex, he invokes a “republican tradition” to “give new impetus”, as he had specified in the Figaro At the beginning of April. It is rather a “courtesy resignation” and a republican tradition practiced since 1879. Jean Castex thus seeks to be part of the heritage of the Fifth Republic. But in view of the particular situation, Jean Castex would therefore reverse the almost hegemonic situation of this government by leaving his post.
For the time being, it is total vagueness around the announcement of the redesign. Firstly because Jean Castex and the current government have not yet resigned. Then because Emmanuel Macron has not revealed any calendar. But once again, in the light of history, the Head of State is playing for time and wants to remain the “master of the clocks”. When François Mitterrand was re-elected on May 8, 1988, the latter appointed Michel Rocard Prime Minister on the 10th, and the formalization of the government followed on May 12 and 13. In the same way, when Jacques Chirac won hands down against Jean-Marie le Pen on May 5, 2002, he appointed Jean-Pierre Raffarin to Matignon the next day, who formalized the names of his ministers on the 8th.
Moreover, it must be borne in mind that this new government will only be suspended, since another custom provides for a government to resign after the election of the deputies. This first government to be announced is in fact more oriented by political considerations in order to send a signal to the voters to obtain a majority in the National Assembly. The real government that will implement Emmanuel Macron’s policy will, for its part, be appointed after the legislative elections, the second round of which is scheduled for June 19.
Having resigned, Jean Castex will have to be replaced as Prime Minister. For several days, this is the great reflection in which Emmanuel Macron has truly engaged. While the Head of State undoubtedly had several names already in mind even before the outcome of the presidential election, the scores posted in the 1st and 2nd rounds by his adversaries were able to reshuffle the cards, the President of the Republic seeking to appoint a personality with a profile capable of carrying out the major reforms he wishes to undertake for the next five-year term, while being “attached to social, environmental and productive issues” and “directly responsible for ecological planning .”
For several days, many names have been circulating. Hypotheses on the identity of the future Prime Minister abound, more or less eccentric, even if certain profiles come back with insistence: those of Elisabeth Borne, Minister of Labour, Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture, or even Pascal Canfin , European deputy. Christine Lagarde, Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet and even left-wing mayors were also cited, with more or less seriousness. But Emmanuel Macron could surprise his world with the appointment of a personality unknown to the general public, as he had done with Edouard Philippe and Jean Castex.