The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will appoint a new prime minister in the next few hours, predictably a woman, after the resignation this Monday of Jean Castex (Vic-Fezensac, 56 years old), holder of the position since 2020. It would be the second woman to front of the Government in the history of France, and the first in 30 years after the brief mandate, less than a year, of the socialist Edith Cresson.
Élisabeth Borne (Paris, 61 years old), current Minister of Labor and identified with the social democratic wing of
macronism
, heads the pools.
Castex postponed his departure for weeks to allow the recently re-elected President of the Republic to find the person who will have a double mission.
First, to lead the campaign for a new presidential majority in the legislative elections on June 12 and 19.
And second, in the event that this candidacy is the majority after these elections, head the Government in the coming years.
The resignation of Castex's own will, an effective senior official and without any temptation to overshadow Macron, opens the millimetric choreography of the succession in the Matignon mansion, seat of the head of government.
After presenting in person this afternoon the resignation to Macron at the Elysée Palace, seat of the presidency, the name of the successor will be announced shortly.
Later, the transfer of powers will come.
And in the next few days, the appointment of the new Government.
The new prime minister can seek a vote of confidence in the National Assembly, but it is not necessary.
In the system of the French Fifth Republic, the prime minister has an ambiguous role.
According to the 1958 Constitution, he "directs the action of the Government", is "responsible for national defense" and "guarantees the execution of the laws".
He also shares with the Parliament the initiative of the laws.
The President of the Republic, for his part, is "the guarantor of national independence, the integrity of the territory and respect for treaties."
Unlike the president, the prime minister is not elected by universal suffrage: his only voter is the president himself.
Hence, his legitimacy is less.
And his room for maneuver, smaller.
He can take advantage of this margin depending on his talent or his ambitions.
But in general, rather than a British-style prime minister, a German chancellor or a Spanish Prime Minister, in France the prime minister is the one in charge of putting into practice the vision of the head of state.
There is one exception: when there is a majority of a different political color in the National Assembly than the president and he is forced to appoint the leader of the opposition as prime minister.
So the prime minister, backed by his parliamentary majority, has all the autonomy in domestic policy and the president is left with foreign policy.
It is called "cohabitation".
The last time there was a cohabitation was between 1997 and 2002 with the Conservative President Jacques Chirac and the Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
Castex, as prime minister, has loyally implemented Macron's initiatives.
He has not been a leader with an autonomous line but a manager.
With a long career in senior administration and in conservative governments, he combined a deep knowledge of the gears of the State with roots in rural France as mayor, between 2008 and 2020, of the municipality of Prada, at the foot of the Catalan Pyrenees.
The former prime minister speaks Catalan and Spanish.
In Matignon, he has had to manage the confinements due to the pandemic and the vaccination campaign, in addition to the economic recovery plans and aid to alleviate inflation.
It leaves France with an unemployment rate of 7.4%, the lowest level in 15 years, but inflation of 5.5% and growth of 0.25% in the second quarter.
In 2021, the public debt rose to 112.9% of GDP, and the budget deficit, to 6.5%.
One advantage of the outgoing prime minister was his lack of political ambition, in contrast to Édouard Philippe, his predecessor during the first half of Macron's first five years.
Unlike others, when Castex shaved each morning, he did not see a future president in the mirror.
Trained at the elite National School of Administration, he saw himself more as a servant of the State.
He had already made it clear that he did not wish to continue.
A paradox of these years has been that the head of government no longer fulfills its traditional function of shield or lightning rod to protect the head of state.
Neither Castex nor Philippe managed to prevent criticism and popular discontent from being directed at Macron and not at them.
In July 2020, after his appointment, Castex declared: "And our first and immense ambition will be to reconcile these
very different Frances.
"
The results of the April presidential elections show that the objective has not been met.
Macron's victory was clear, but more than half of the French opted for options to break with the system in the first round and in the second, 13 million French people voted for the extreme right.
In December, during an interview with EL PAÍS in Matignon, Castex explained: “National cohesion is a long-term job.
I always try, together with President Macron, to unite, to federate the populations, the territories, and especially those that are in difficulty.
And I firmly condemn those who call for the exclusion and hatred of the other.
France is not that.
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