(Paris) The new “mission and rally” government of French President Emmanuel Macron to approach the end of his five-year term was unveiled on Monday evening, with some changes to key ministries such as the Interior and Ecology , and the surprise arrival of a tenor from the Justice Bar.
Posted on July 6 2020 at 14 h 54
Laurence BENHAMOU
France Media Agency
Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter Sunday that he wanted a government “of mission and unity” to carry his policy which must “adapt to international upheavals and crises”.
The Minister of the Interior of the previous team, Christophe Castaner, a very close friend of Emmanuel Macron, but who had turned against the police, is replaced by Gérald Darmanin, who was previously responsible for Public Accounts .
Former lieutenant of president Nicolas Sarkozy (2007 – 2012), Mr. Darmanin, 37 years, comes from the right, just like the Prime Minister designated Friday by Emmanuel Macron, Jean Castex, an unknown to the general public. But he was promoted to the government when the justice ordered the resumption of the investigations concerning an accusation of rape targeting him by 2009.
Beginning 2018, he was in fact accused by two women, one for rape , the other for abuse of weakness, in full swing #metoo – accusations he refutes. If the investigation therefore continues for one of them, the prosecution has dismissed the second.
The other big change concerns the Ecology, a few days after the push of environmentalists in certain big cities during the municipal elections, marked by a very strong abstention.
Barbara Pompili, 45 years old, former member of the EELV environmental party spent to the presidential party LREM, was appointed to this key position. Her job will be to “green” Emmanuel Macron’s environmental policy. Third in protocol, she finds herself a heavyweight in government.
PHOTO STEPHANE MAHE, REUTERS ARCHIVES
The new Minister of Ecology, Barbara Pompili
“We will have few priorities: reviving the economy, continuing to rebuild our social protection and the environment, re-establishing a just republican order, defending European sovereignty”, Emmanuel Macron said at the weekend to define his roadmap.
Bruno Le Maire remains in charge of the Economy, Finance and Recovery, and Jean-Yves Le Drian remains in Foreign and European Affairs, with a number two protocol status.
The most surprising appointment is that of a tenor of the bar, the famous lawyer Éric Dupond-Moretti, to the post of Keeper of the Seals, Minister of Justice.
Eloquence and extraordinary stature, he was until now famous for his dreaded pleadings in court of assizes and his blows in particularly media trials.
Reinvention
This team, which also includes Roselyne Bachelot, a former right-wing minister who has become a TV columnist, now responsible for Culture, will therefore be responsible for setting the music for the second part of Emmanuel Macron's five-year term.
PHOTO ALAIN JOCARD, ARCHIVES AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The new Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot
After three years in power, controversial reforms like those of unemployment insurance, several crises (demonstrations of yellow vests …), the French President had announced a need, in his words, to “reinvent itself”, then that it is not very popular and that the country is preparing to suffer a strong economic impact as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
A need still exacerbated after the setback of the presidential party in the municipal elections of 28 June at the end of which a majority of communes are directed by the right, and where several big cities passed to the hands of ecological mayors.
Emmanuel Macron had promised “new faces, new talents”. It basically boils down to the arrival in government of Master Dupond-Moretti, a titan of French courtrooms, who also tried his hand at the theater, at the Regalian Ministry of Justice.
The new government will meet on Tuesday in the Council of Ministers to start working.
The next important step to understand the new political course of Emmanuel Macron for the end of his mandate before the presidential elections of 2022 is expected on 14 July, for the holiday national.
He should detail his projects during a new intervention, reviving a presidential tradition that he had suppressed.
The Prime Minister will present his program “a few days later”, according to the entourage of Emmanuel Macron.
