While the cabinet reshuffle is imminent, many names are emerging for the future Prime Minister. Valérie Létard, the UDI senator from the North, is well placed on this list. Who is she and what are her chances of being appointed to Matignon?
Emmanuel Macron ended his second term on Friday May 13, 2022 at midnight. The day before, the government team of Jean Castex had met for a farewell dinner, with speeches of thanks and gifts at the key. So, who to replace him at Matignon? The question has been pending since April 24, the date of the re-election of the president of “Renaissance”. Three weeks later, the French are still waiting. In fact, he wanted to take his time. This appointment, which is supposed to breathe “new breath” into a political lineage that he intends to “renew”, is of major importance and is on everyone’s lips. Especially since Emmanuel Macron had assured to know the identity of his future Prime Minister during a trip to Berlin last week.
And yet, neither the former Prime Minister, nor Emmanuel Macron, nor his spokespersons have let slip the slightest information on this subject. Although… Many tracks have been approached, and the clues have multiplied. Expected names came out, but above all a profile: the future Prime Minister will probably be a woman with a rather ecological and social orientation, to implement the major project of the five-year term: ecological planning. Another element should weigh in the balance: the ability of this profile to correspond to the desire to “overcome” political divisions, that is to bring together personalities from all sides, as in 2017. So, among the names of the favorites, of the current Minister of Labor Elisabeth Borne, to that of the president of the metropolis of Reims, Catherine Vautrin, emerged that of the center-right senator Valérie Létard. His presence at the President’s inauguration ceremony only reinforced this assumption, which was widely circulated last week. Is this recent hypothesis credible?
At 59, Valérie Létard is a figure of the French right. Senator from the North, she belongs to the Union of Democrats and Independents, a French political party founded in 2012 by Jean-Louis Borloo, former MEP and former mayor of Valenciennes. Social assistance by training, she embarked on politics as a regional councilor for Nord-Pas-de-Calais, a position she held from 1998 to 2010. She then became deputy mayor of Valenciennes, before launching as a Senator for the North in 2001, until 2007. Then returned to the post of Deputy Mayor from 2008 to 2014, this time as First Deputy. Then, the turning point came in 2008, when she took over the presidency of the agglomeration community of Valencienne Métropole, a role that she still fulfills today, while again being a senator for the North since 2010. Between these mandates of Senator, she was Secretary of State in the governments of François Fillon twice, the first time from 2009 to 2010 as Secretary of State in charge of Green Technologies and Climate Negotiations, and the second from 2007 to 2009 as Secretary of State for Solidarity.
In 2011, she joined the national leadership of the Republican, Ecological and Social Alliance. She then leans for the UDI, party on whose behalf she is a candidate in the regional elections of December 2015. In 2017, when she was re-elected senator for the third time, it was as head of the list of “Republic and Territories”, bringing together elected UDI, LR and non-registered. Her career in the Senate is therefore consistent, she who was appointed vice-president in 2017. Her place within the UDI became major when she was appointed president of the national council of the party in March 2018. October 6, 2020 , Valérie Létard is confirmed in her functions as Vice-President of the Upper Assembly when the institution’s bodies are renewed. Her last mandate relates to the departmental elections last year: she was elected departmental councilor for the North in June 2021.
With her mandates as Secretary of State within the government of François Fillon, she corresponds well to the social and ecological profile which seems to have to be imposed, as Emmanuel Macron had notably declared during his trip to Cergy-Pontoise last April. . It is competent in the environmental and solidarity fields, while representing, according to many commentators, the “new center”. In addition, its local roots in the North of France could be an advantage.
Another clue is the post of Ministry of Housing and the City that Emmanuel Macron had offered her in May 2017 … But which she had declined. And in fact, her “center-right” sometimes leans towards Les Républicains, she who has engaged in the legislative campaign of LR candidates in her department, and who has openly supported candidate Valérie Pécresse. But political affiliation is not necessarily a crucial parameter for Emmanuel Macron, who claims to rally and overcome divisions, with a desire not to necessarily draw from personalities already acquired in the presidential camp.
However, this assumption has competition. Opposite, other personalities are quoted and seem credible. First, there is Elisabeth Borne, approached for months at the post. Her social and ecological fiber, with her positions as Minister of Transport, Ecological Transition and Labor since 2017 and her socialist past, especially when she was director of cabinet to Ségolène Royal, make her the ideal candidate… For this almost that she is already in the political majority, while Emmanuel Macron says he seeks diversity. There is also Catherine Vautrin, the favorite. President of the metropolis of Reims, she joined Emmanuel Macron in February, leaving the LR in the middle of the campaign. At 61, this former vice-president of the National Assembly and minister under Jacques Chirac is in a good position in the forecasts. However, his fight against marriage for all, led in 2015, scared people within Emmanuel Macron’s camp. Thus, the pros and cons are numerous in each of the profiles… Which gives Valérie Létard a chance. A probable appointment therefore, but not certain.