If Emmanuel Macron remains indifferent to Lucie Castets’ proposal for the post of Prime Minister, for the NFP, their candidate “will be appointed after the Olympic Games”.
The essential
- The new government is not coming right away, but Emmanuel Macron set his conditions on July 23, on France 2, to replace Gabriel Attal.
- The president is determined to maintain two demands: first, he refuses to appoint a Prime Minister who does not have the support of a majority of elected representatives in the National Assembly, that is to say at least 289 deputies forming a coalition based on a government project. Second, he will not appoint anyone to Matignon before the end of the Olympic Games. “That would create disorder,” he justified, while France is hosting a global event.
- After August 15, Emmanuel Macron will consider appointing a prime minister, but “depending on the progress of discussions” between the parties so that they can agree. This means that he could wait weeks, the end of the summer, or even longer.
- The left-wing parties of the NFP have agreed on the name of Lucie Castets for Matignon, but Emmanuel Macron is closing the door to this option. On the NFP side, they firmly believe in the candidacy of Lucie Castets who will continue to make the rounds of the morning shows and travel to the regions, perhaps to Marseille to “show that she is not a techno-Parisian candidate”.
Live
09:18 – Lucie Castets related PS? “I don’t have a particular label”
“I am not a party activist, I am left-wing, I am committed, I do not have a particular label within these parties. That is why, I believe, they designated me” affirmed Lucie Castets this Thursday morning on BFMTV. However, the ENA graduate was a candidate on a PS list in the 2015 regional elections. She affirms that she is not “more PS, I am committed to serving the entire New Popular Front” she specified.
Lucie Castets, NFP candidate for Matignon: “I am not a party activist, I am left-wing, I do not have a particular label within these parties” pic.twitter.com/DQQBgrIfrM
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) July 25, 2024
09:03 – Survey: French people not thrilled by Lucie Castets’ candidacy
According to an Elabe poll for BFMTV published this Thursday, July 25, 58% of French people believe that the president should not appoint Lucie Castets to Matignon. “48 hours ago, I was totally unknown to the French. Today, 41% of French people say that Emmanuel Macron should appoint me Prime Minister,” retorts Lucie Castets on BFMTV. “Civil society, the unions are organized, there was a press release yesterday from the CGT, which asks the President of the Republic to come out of the paralysis,” she continues.
???? “48 hours ago, I was totally unknown”
Lucie Castets reacts to a poll showing a majority of French people opposed to her nomination to Matignon pic.twitter.com/sC37kAoSRS
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) July 25, 2024
08:59 – Without an absolute majority, the NFP is looking for allies
“We will need ministers who are fully in agreement with the political orientations, which are those of the NFP program.” In addition to the alliance parties, Lucie Castets does not close the door to ministers from civil society to join a potential left-wing government. “The other question is parliamentary work. There, we are aware that there is no absolute majority. The question will be to find, project by project, a way to govern, on that I am confident. There are a lot of deputies, beyond the NFP who are convinced by the fact that public services must be restored and the pension reform repealed,” Lucie Castets explained this Thursday morning.
08:53 – “We are ready to govern France with full responsibility”
Regarding the threat of a motion of censure brandished by the RN, LR and the Macron camp in the event of a rebellious minister in the future government, Lucie Castets indicates that the NFP “wants to implement” its program. “I think that the deputies will take their responsibilities (…) There is not a form of kamikaze organization on the left, we are at work. We are responsible. We are more responsible than what the outgoing government has done, particularly on the economic level. We are ready to govern France with full responsibility” she continues on BFMTV.
08:48 – “The challenge is to go to Matignon” says Lucie Castets
“The challenge is of course to go to Matignon, a hope has arisen with the election result. The institutional logic is that the president forms a government on the basis of this result (…) I am determined” indicated Lucie Castets, NFP candidate for the post of Prime Minister this Thursday morning on BFMTV. She continues: “the problems of the French are public services, the repeal of the pension reform, the revaluation of their purchasing power”.
08:36 – “For us, it will be named after the Olympic Games”
If the New Popular Front has no choice but to respect the timing imposed by the master of clocks, Emmanuel Macron, who does not seem to be in a hurry to appoint a new government, it still believes, and hard as iron, in the candidacy of Lucie Castets. It must be said that she concentrates all the hopes of the left to join Matignon, a political group that had so much trouble agreeing on a single and unique profile.
“For us, she will be appointed after the Olympic Games, we are in that frame of mind” confided an advisor yesterday to Politico. The latter seems to have perceived in the expression of the President of the Republic an absence of “categorical refusal of the person of Lucie”. For the moment, it is difficult to discern the slightest sign of openness on the part of the Head of State towards the left. But for the left, all does not seem lost, far from it.
08:26 – Lucie Castets wants to erase her image of “techno-Parisian”
Since his interview on France 2 on Tuesday, it has been radio silence for Emmanuel Macron on the subject of Lucie Castets’ candidacy for the post of Prime Minister. In the name of political truce? Perhaps, but on the NFP side, the fight continues. And Lucie Castets has not said her last word, even if the head of state seemed rather insensitive to her nomination by the left-wing alliance.
Present from 8:35 on BFMTV this Thursday, Politico informs us that the potential Prime Minister of the left is considering traveling to the regions, “perhaps to Marseille”, to “show that she is not a techno-Parisian candidate”. On Friday, she will also meet with deputies from the New Popular Front.
07/24/24 – 11:47 p.m. – Appointments made by the government: Olivier Faure sounds the alarm
END OF LIVE – The leader of the socialists alerted the Council of State by letter this Wednesday. In this letter, that The world was able to consult, Olivier Faure points out in particular a “recent series of appointments to management positions within the central administration with deferred start dates”. A series of appointments that Marine Le Pen had already denounced in the media at the beginning of July. Olivier Faure now deplores in turn “a rush to change the directors of administration before a possible cohabitation takes place”.
07/24/24 – 11:15 p.m. – “We are not going to dissolve into Macronism,” assures Republican Othman Nasrou
“If we continue like this, mixing genres, doing the ‘at the same time’, France will continue to be ungovernable,” said Othman Nasrou, LR vice-president of the Île-de-France regional council, on the BFMTV set on Wednesday evening, insisting on the fact that the vocation of the Republicans (without Ciotti) “is to embody another alternative”, in which case, “the only alternative tomorrow will be the National Rally or La France Insoumise”. And Othman Nasrou added on the subject of a coalition with the presidential camp and while his party proposed a “legislative pact” to Emmanuel Macron on Monday: “We are not going to dissolve ourselves in Macronism which is over, we are going to build, on the contrary, a credible alternative for the future of the country”.
07/24/24 – 10:30 p.m. – “A coalition with the presidential camp is impossible,” says Lucie Castets
On the airwaves of France Inter, Wednesday morning, the one who was designated by the New Popular Front for Matignon wanted to show that Emmanuel Macron’s remarks the day before had in no way affected her motivation. “A hope has been raised, I am ready, we are ready and I ask the President of the Republic to take his responsibilities and appoint me Prime Minister,” she declared. And while the Head of State has not stopped, since the second round of the elections legislative elections, to call for broadening the majority, Lucie Castets decided: “A coalition with the presidential camp is impossible due to our profound disagreements.”
07/24/24 – 9:46 p.m. – Frédéric Valletoux calls for “compromises”
The now former Minister of Health and Prevention pointed out on X, this Wednesday, that the President of the Republic had reaffirmed on Tuesday evening that “no group has the majority to implement its program”. Faced with this observation, Frédéric Valletoux considered: “Our responsibility is to do what all European democracies do: compromise. To create a new majority, in the interest of the French.”
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How soon will the new government be appointed?
The President announced that he wanted to wait for the “structuring” of the Assembly (in particular the constitution of the groups and the election of their presidents) to appoint a new head of government. In a letter to the French people published on July 10, he also considered that it was necessary to “give the political forces a little time to build [des] compromise with serenity and respect for everyone. Until then, the current Government will continue to exercise its responsibilities and will then be in charge of current affairs as is the republican tradition.”
Given the composition of the National Assembly, the President of the Republic has set himself the task of finding a Prime Minister capable of gathering the support of at least 289 deputies, in order to ensure stability. The same applies to the ministers that the latter will then have to propose. Otherwise, the new government as a whole would be exposed to a motion of censure which, if voted for by more than half of the elected representatives, would lead to the overthrow of the ministerial team. It would therefore be necessary to start all over again.
The problem is that Emmanuel Macron will have to accommodate all sensitivities, from the left of course, from the center naturally, but also from the right. If the NFP came out on top, the head of state has already ruled out governing with the LFI deputies. So out goes these sixty elected officials, who could be compensated by the sixty LR who should once again join the Palais Bourbon. Finding personalities who suit the ecologists, socialists, communists, macronists and republicans will not be easy. Not to mention the programmatic points on which everyone will have to agree. The negotiations are still expected to be long and complex. Suffice to say that Gabriel Attal should make extra…
Long and complex negotiations also took place on the left, before the NFP reached an agreement, on Tuesday, July 23, just an hour before Emmanuel Macron’s interview on France 2. After several weeks of procrastination, the left-wing parties of the NFP agreed on the name of the senior civil servant, spokesperson for Our Public Services, Lucie Castets, for Matignon. However, Emmanuel Macron stated that he would not appoint a new Prime Minister before the end of the Olympic Games “in mid-August” and who would not come from a coalition.