“In the coming days”: without setting a precise date, the new tenant of Matignon must choose a new “tightened” government team, according to those around her, while the appointment of possible secretaries of state is expected in a second step, probably after the legislative elections.
Because it is first of all as patroness of the majority that Ms. Borne approaches her new functions, with the roadmap of again giving a majority to the macronie in the Assembly.
Never elected herself, she had been invested in recent days by the presidential majority in the sixth constituency of Calvados. His entourage confirmed this candidacy on Monday evening in a territory which had clearly placed Emmanuel Macron in the lead in the two rounds of the presidential election, suggesting success for the new Prime Minister.
But, otherwise, his future at Matignon would seem compromised.
Ms. Borne learned of her appointment on Monday morning from the mouth of Emmanuel Macron, confirmed in the afternoon by a brief press release from the Elysée. During a transfer of power initiated by an embrace with Jean Castex – a first since the succession between Michel Rocard and Edith Cresson in 1991 – it was for her illustrious predecessor that Ms. Borne wanted to have a thought, becoming the second woman to lead the French government under the Fifth Republic.
She dedicated her nomination “to all the little girls”, whom she invited to “go after (their) dreams”.
Thirty years after the departure of Mrs. Cresson at Matignon, Elisabeth Borne will have to thwart the machismo reputedly still present in the political class, as much as imposing a style more severe than that of Jean Castex, a good-natured figure which she noted that he had ” conquered the hearts of the French”.
But “we have a lot in common”, swore that came from the left to the place of the ex-LR, “even if we come from different political families”.
Ms. Borne cannot count on any state of grace from the opposition: “Macron has just chosen a socialist technocrat as Prime Minister”, lambasted LR deputy Eric Ciotti, while his LFI counterpart Adrien Quatennens considered that she was “the other name for social abuse”.
– Pension reform –
On the merits, during her short speech on the steps of Matignon, Elisabeth Borne called for “acting faster and stronger” in the face of “the climate and ecological challenge”.
“I am convinced that we will be able to do this by involving even more the living forces of our territory, because it is very close to the French that we will find the right answers”, she again launched, while the President of the Republic had listed a few minutes earlier in a tweet what he intended to be the priorities of his new head of government: “ecology, health, education, full employment, democratic renaissance, Europe and security”.
For several days, the President of the Republic had indicated that he was looking for a “social”, “ecological” and “productive” profile, boxes ticked by the former Minister of Labour, Transport and Ecological Transition, this the last portfolio must also now be the prerogative of the Prime Minister, according to the presidential will.
But it is also on purchasing power, the number one concern of the French, that the new tenant of Matignon will first have to convince, in particular with the implementation in the coming days of the food voucher, in a context of high inflation.
More generally, this former prefect will have to embody the “refounded method” promised by Emmanuel Macron to govern France, based on consultation and dialogue.
The one with a social profile, formerly a member of the Socialist Party, will be particularly expected at the turn to launch the promised explosive pension reform, with the aim of raising the retirement age to 64 at the end of the five-year term and then to 65. by 2031.
