And meanwhile, Lucie Castets continues to campaign. The candidate of the New Popular Front (NFP) at Matignon, recently designated by the various parties of the left-wing alliance, continues her quest for notoriety among the French. She tries to invite herself into their daily lives, which are nevertheless more focused on vacations, the Olympic Games and the widely publicized performances of French athletes. “Inevitably during this period, we cannot say that our fellow citizens are totally focused on political news, sighs Christian Picquet, NFP negotiator for the French Communist Party. But this is the timing given by Emmanuel Macron.”
Forcing the hands of a frozen dial? A major challenge to impose this famous arm wrestling match on the master of clocks, advocate of an “Olympic truce”, which, in the polls, obtains the approval of a majority of French people. Lucie Castets has not yet achieved the popularity of the triple Olympic champion swimmer Léon Marchand, as evidenced This recent Elabe study for The echoeswhere the former advisor to Anne Hidalgo and director of finance and purchasing at Paris City Hall is in the last places of the ranking of personalities, gathering more negative opinions than positive ones. Perhaps she will have the endurance of Méline Rollin, the French marathon runner who will soon be competing in the Olympic Games?
First trips, first problems?
Because since the white smoke at the NFP, on July 23, the candidate for the prime minister’s office has begun a tour of TV, radio and other media to increase the pressure on Emmanuel Macron. In nearly ten days, the 37-year-old ENA graduate has distinguished herself on the microphones of France Inter, BFM TV, and more recently RTL. Lucie Castets’ entourage is delighted with the interest shown by the national press in her subject, and is still waiting for a few portraits to appear next week, including one where she will particularly break the armor, “from her childhood to today” in the columns of Paris Match. A word of warning to foreign journalists, issued by one of her close friends: the senior civil servant speaks “fluent English”, “very good German” and, after a year of university exchange in Shanghai, “has a good knowledge of Chinese”. The same close friend therefore insists: if, throughout the world, some are interested in the profile of the polyglot prime minister-to-be, the latter “will not refrain from answering them in their native language… including Chinese.”
Thematic trips, a must for any politician on the campaign trail. Lucie Castets’ big leap, dedicated to purchasing power, took place on July 27 in Lille. “Come and meet me,” she indicated earlier via a visual published on her social networks, in preparation for her visit to the working-class district of Wazemmes. The stroll alongside the national environmentalist secretary, elected representative of Hénin-Beaumont, Marine Tondelier, and the local rebellious MP, Aurélien Lecoq, were not enough to hide the elephant in the room.
Where was Martine Aubry, the pink mayor of Lille? Held up, they say, by an Olympic match of the French team, the mayor of the North did not have time to come and greet the new NFP champion. “We chose the worst time for Martine, the afternoon of the opening of the games in Lille, a match day of the French basketball team”, regrets the entourage of the candidate for Matignon. What about the other socialists? The baron of the North Patrick Kanner, head of the senators, was stuck in Paris, at the “Club France”, in his capacity as former Minister of Sports. Roger Vicot, deputy of the 11th constituency, was for his part, “already gone on vacation in Greece”, according to his colleagues. The vagaries of a summer campaign!
First campaign, first squabbles? The resigning deputy-minister of Industry and Energy, Roland Lescure, did not appreciate Lucie Castets’ second trip with Olivier Faure – among others – to the Duralex glassworks factory in La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin (Loiret). Involved in the future of the company, whose takeover by employees has just been accepted by the Orléans commercial court, he was moved, on X, of a form of instrumentalization. “We have been supporting Duralex, with the unions, the region and the metropolis since 2022. In total, state support reaches 19 million euros, he estimates. […] I imagine that Lucie Castets is going there to salute our action?” On site, the candidate for Matignon admitted to AFP: “All public actors have mobilized on the issue […] It is important to recognize this. It is a guarantee that I know how to work with other people, that when people mobilize in a good direction, then we know how to recognize it.” At the same time, her team upset some journalists, accrediting only a small number to follow the trip. A prime ministerial “pool” for Lucie Castets? Her entourage invokes security reasons.
Balancing act
“We must continue to take the pulse of the country,” says Patrick Kanner. “I hope that this will last until the end of August.” Hold on. Continue to build momentum, while maintaining this difficult balancing act within the union. Since her appointment, Lucie Castets has been extra cautious in order not to offend any component of the New Popular Front. She regularly meets with representatives of the NFP – the last meeting was this Friday – to refine certain measures in the program and prepare the summer calendar. She is starting to make contact with the group presidents, and will attend the summer universities of the four left-wing parties. But from the shadows to the light, media appearances can take on the appearance of pitfalls. Not responding is sometimes a good response. On the subject of nuclear power, the person concerned admitted that she did not have “ready-made convictions”, preferring a debate to come within the union. To the great delight of the communists, fervent supporters of the atom. “The red line would have been to call into question France’s nuclear programme,” says Christian Picquet.
But not responding is sometimes responding badly. Condemning the remarks of the rebellious MP Thomas Portes, who assured that Israeli athletes “are not welcome in France”? Lucie Castets dodges the issue, before doing it again in the columns of The Sunday Tribune : “His words are clumsy […] At the Olympics, we must ensure the safety of Israeli athletes; there is no question of putting them in danger.” Enough, however, to create a stir in the Socialist Party, of which she was nevertheless on Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol’s list in the 2015 regional elections. “We saw clearly that it was complicated for her to answer on nuclear power, on who would vote with the NFP to repeal the pension reform, what coalition or majority she would seek, in what format, on the comments linked to the question of Israeli athletes…”, tackles Hélène Geoffroy at Parisianat the same time asking for “clarification” of the PS line.
“We must invite him to discuss”
If the prospect of the prime ministership unites the lieutenants of the New Popular Front, Emmanuel Macron, for his part, seems to be betting on its erosion. In Macronie, however, some voices are being raised to ask the head of state, if only for form’s sake, to meet Lucie Castets. “We must build bridges and not erect walls with the NFP so that discussions can formally begin,” argued Renew MEP Pascal Canfin in an interview given to World. Some ministers, also from the left wing, are calling for the head of state to receive Lucie Castets, and suspect Gérald Darmanin of being behind the maneuvers to bury this possibility. One minister agrees: “We must invite him to discuss, give him 15 days or three weeks to come back with proposals that can only be their program.” And “give back to the Socialist Party, the Communists and the Greens their freedom of action, just like ours.”
“They will never agree on the program, nor on the casting of a government,” dismisses an interlocutor of the President of the Republic. On target? The prospect of a Mélenchonist at the helm of a sovereign ministry already makes the socialists pale. So here is Lucie Castets’ triple challenge for the summer: to establish herself as an essential figure with the French, with Emmanuel Macron, while respecting the balances of the union. Pretender to the prime minister’s office… Quite a job! This is perhaps the reason why she kept hers. The civil servant at Paris City Hall preferred to take paid leave, rather than put herself on leave. You never know, Olympic break for some, professional break for others…
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