Posted25 avril 2022, 17:24
After the re-election of Emmanuel Macron, an expert thinks that he “is not going to appoint a warlord for the legislative elections” in June as Prime Minister, rather someone “for the next three years”.
Emmanuel Macron needs “fresh blood”, according to his relatives.
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Re-elected on Sunday to the French presidency, Emmanuel Macron must now choose a Prime Minister, who will form a government, as well as advisers to embody the promised renewal, while embarking on the crucial legislative battle. The choice of this “fresh blood” which he needs, according to those close to him, should not, however, take place before the beginning of May, the re-elected president having given himself “a week of hindsight” after his victory against the extreme candidate. right, Marine Le Pen.
Five years ago, Emmanuel Macron burst into the forefront of the political arena by surfing on the disintegration of the great traditional formations. His party, La République en Marche (LREM), won a majority in the National Assembly in 2017, but is not well established throughout the country. He had mainly debauched the center-right, the vote of the center-left seeming acquired.
This time, everything remains open on the political coloring of the newcomers, including for the post of Prime Minister. Many names are circulating, but the only certainty is that the current Prime Minister, Jean Castex, will soon leave office, as he announced.
A unifying personality
“The president is not going to appoint a warlord for the legislative elections, but the one who will be able to move the country forward for the next three years, the legislative elections will only modify his choices at the margin”, affirms a pillar of the majority. For the President of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, “we need a personality that brings people together” and who can “respond to the major challenges put in the forefront by the President”. With “a match between the objectives – ecological – and the personality that embodies it”, he said on France Inter radio.
The Secretary of State for European Affairs, Clément Beaune, shares this analysis: by choosing his Prime Minister, “the President will be keen to show a first element of unity”. Emmanuel Macron likes to surprise: will he want to reiterate the “blows” of the first five-year term, sometimes divisive, or will he opt for more consensual choices and seasoned policies?
The names of personalities with different profiles are circulating, from the current Minister of Labor, Élisabeth Borne, to those of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, or of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. The hypothesis Christine Lagarde, of the European Central Bank, seems ruled out. In the government, some should stay and new rallies, left and right, could enter.
Au sprint
For the battle of the legislative elections, scheduled for June, the presidential camp, which will seek to build a solid majority, faces opponents determined to take their revenge, to make these legislative elections a “third round”, or even to impose cohabitation.
The unprecedented delay between the presidential election and the first round of legislative elections on June 12 looks like a long-distance race, but the main opponents, Marine Le Pen and the leader of the radical left Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came third in the first round of the presidential election, started it in a sprint.
On Sunday, two polls showed that a majority of French people did not want Emmanuel Macron’s troops to win the legislative elections (63% according to OpinionWay, 56% according to Ipsos Sopra-Steria). For the traditional formations like Les Républicains (LR) and the Socialist Party (PS), rolled during this presidential election, the ambition is to resist the forces of attraction of macronism and to survive the recomposition of the radical blocs, on the right and on the left.
During the 2017 legislative elections, against a backdrop of record abstention (57.36%) and “clearance” of the historic parties, Emmanuel Macron found himself with an absolute majority with, at the end of the day, cohorts of new deputies. And in 2022? “The legislative elections are going to be complicated. There will be no breath effect, ”prognosticates a former right-wing tenor converted to Macronism.
(AFP)