(Paris) After the defeat of the municipal elections, Emmanuel Macron is trying to regain control, with the expected announcement Monday of the new government known as “rallying”, then a speech on 14 July.
Posted on July 5 2020 at 10 h 56
Laurence BENHAMOU
France Media Agency
The president will speak on National Day, “probably in the context of a television interview,” said his entourage, reviving a presidential tradition that he had suppressed. He intends to specify the broad outlines of his policy, two years before the presidential election of 2022.
The Prime Minister, who had initially planned to announce his program as early as the middle of next week in his general policy statement to the Assembly, will have to wait for the presidential speech. He will make his statement “a few days later”, according to the entourage of Emmanuel Macron, confirming what had been mentioned by the President of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand.
First step therefore for the executive: “form a new government for Monday in the day”, announced to AFP the Elysee, “a government of mission and gathering”, said in a tweet Emmanuel Macron, who also says he wants to “adapt to international upheavals and crises”.
According to the Élysée, this government should have “around twenty ministers and deputy ministers”. The team led by Édouard Philippe included 16 ministers, three deputy ministers and 17 Secretaries of State.
According to a relative of the head of state, the announcement should be made “in two stages”, first the ministers, then the secretaries of state.
Emmanuel Macron's entourage assured that there would be “new talents” and “personalities from different backgrounds”.
Responding to rumors about a tight team around major main poles, Jean Castex told the Journal du Dimanche
do not “be sure that too large perimeters are necessarily the guarantee of greater efficiency”.
PHOTO THOMAS SAMSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Édouard Philippe (on the left) ceded his duties as Prime Minister to Jean Castex, on July 3.
“Debauchery”
The former Socialist Minister and former presidential candidate Ségolène Royal said he was contacted on Saturday, adding that participation in this government would only “make sense” if she could pursue a “more social” policy. , more ecological, more democratic ”. Faced with a denial from a source close to the head of state, she provided the AFP with text messages that she said she had with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
The patroness of socialist deputies Valérie Rabault, also contacted according to her, stressed that “the answer is no”, because “poaching does not constitute a policy”. And if socialists entered government, “they would register outside the party,” she warned.
At Les Républicains, vice-president Gilles Platret also called to say “no” to any proposal, to “not deny himself”.
The new Prime Minister must also receive majority deputies and senators on Monday evening.
For François Bayrou, boss of MoDem, ally of the majority, Jean Castex will be “a prime prime minister” by his “experience”, in a context of deep economic and social crisis.
The former “Mister Deconfinement”, who made his first official outing on Saturday in a high-tech company, underlines that “the epidemic has changed the deal”.
France “finds itself facing two challenges”: “the health crisis” and “the reconstruction of our economy and the protection of the French”.
Beyond the need to “avoid the maximum number of layoffs” in the short term, we must also look at “how we can ensure the foundation of a relocation, of a sustainable maintenance of industrial jobs and those exposed to international competition in France, he explains.
The “no priority” pension file
Jean Castex also says he wants “at least a new social agenda” and settle “in the short term” the explosive pension issue.
Response from Philippe Martinez, the boss of the CGT, on LCI on Sunday: “All the unions agree today that pension reform is not a priority subject”.
As for the Ségur de la Santé, suspended at the end of the week for lack of agreement with the unions before the reshuffle, the Prime Minister wishes to conclude it “next week”, when an envelope of seven billion euros is on the table for caregiver salaries.
His method? Social dialogue, and rely on local elected officials. But he warns: “I don't believe in soft consensus”.
After the strong green breakthrough in municipal elections, ecology is “not an option” but “an obligation”, also repeats Jean Castex, who wants to “speed up” decisions.
“The time has come to make a frank choice”, exhorted Sunday the former Minister of Ecology Nicolas Hulot, who had slammed the door of the government in 2018. “Ecology is now or never”.
Among the Greens, EELV MEP Yannick Jadot sees “perfect continuity between Jean Castex and Édouard Philippe” who, according to him, “have never shown any interest in climate or biodiversity”.
