A technical profile, or ultimately rather political? Xavier Bertrand or Bernard Cazeneuve? Fifty days after the resignation of the Attal government, the interminable quest for a new Prime Minister, capable of imposing himself on a fragmented Assembly, was to continue on Wednesday at the Elysée.
Key information to remember
⇒ Retailleau demands the appointment of a Prime Minister “in the next few hours”
⇒ Macron is still looking for an ideal “political solution” for Matignon
⇒ The PS rules out unconditional support for a Cazeneuve government
Macron is still looking for his ideal political profile for Matignon
After circulating the Thierry Beaudet lead on Monday — a man unknown to the general public, who could have become a “technical” Prime Minister — the Elysée Palace was leaning Tuesday evening “rather” towards “a political solution”, according to a close friend of Emmanuel Macron. With this in mind, the presidency continued to put forward the names of two experienced personalities, one from the left, the former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, the other from the right, the President of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand. A kind of finale in short… without excluding the emergence of a third name, according to an advisor to the executive!
According to a close friend of the president, both of them already provide “more stability” than Lucie Castets, the candidate of the New Popular Front, rejected by Emmanuel Macron. “There are reservations towards them, red lines of substance and method, but not necessarily immediate censorship,” the same source suggests.
Retailleau demands the appointment of a Prime Minister “in the next few hours”
The leader of the LR senators Bruno Retailleau demanded on Wednesday that President Emmanuel Macron appoint a new Prime Minister “in the coming hours”, reiterating his support for Xavier Bertrand to prevent “a left-wing policy”. “The responsibility for choosing the Prime Minister lies with the President of the Republic and he must do so in the coming hours, not in the coming days”, affirmed the elected representative of the Republicans on BFMTV.
“We want institutional stability and that is why, in the case of Xavier Bertrand, we asked (the head of state) to ensure that there would be no censure immediately after the appointment,” he stressed.
A motion to impeach the head of state among the rebels
On the left, the Insoumis – who refused to speak again with the president on Tuesday – continue to affirm that they will censure any Prime Minister other than Lucie Castets.
If Emmanuel Macron “could appoint himself and cohabit with himself, he would have done so”, mocked the leader of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot, confirming that her troops were to file a motion on Tuesday with the office of the National Assembly to dismiss the head of state, who “exceeds his powers and plunges the country into a political crisis that he himself created”.
PS rules out unconditional support for Cazeneuve government
Internal opponents of First Secretary Olivier Faure had demanded a vote in the afternoon so that the PS “clearly announces that it will not censure a cohabitation government led by Bernard Cazeneuve”, if its program was based on that of the New Popular Front. The leadership did not want a vote on this subject, preferring to submit to the vote a resolution presenting the 10 points on which the PS will not compromise and will ask the future Prime Minister to commit, such as the repeal of the pension reform, the unemployment insurance reform and the immigration law, the increase in the minimum wage, the green ISF, the taxation of super-profits, measures for schools and health, housing, etc.
The resolution also states that the PS continues to demand the appointment of Lucie Castets as Prime Minister. “Failing that, we will not participate in any government that is not a government of the New Popular Front,” the text states. After four hours of discussions within the National Bureau, opponents proposed an amendment to this resolution, asking not to censure a Cazeneuve government a priori. But the National Bureau rejected it by 53.5% to 46.5%.
The mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol and the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin Hélène Geoffroy, both on a line hostile to the agreements with LFI and known to be more open to compromises with other political forces, asked that Olivier Faure and the leader of the socialist deputies Boris Vallaud, who spoke in the afternoon with Emmanuel Macron, could assure them that the PS would not censure a government of Bernard Cazeneuve, which relies on the NFP program.