French PM Borne resigns, and Macron will name the new government. In an attempt to revitalize his second term ahead of the summer Olympics in Paris and the elections to the European Parliament, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne tendered her resignation on Monday.
Macron refrained from naming her replacement right away. The year was characterized by political upheavals brought on by controversial changes to immigration and pension policies, which led to the resignation of the prime minister.
Additionally, it occurs only five months before elections to the European Parliament, when eurosceptics are predicted to make historic gains amid a general public unhappiness with rising living expenses and the inability of European governments to control immigration.
Ahead of the June election, opinion surveys in France indicate that Macron’s party is about eight to ten points behind that of far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
In the weeks before Macron’s centrist majority began to show serious fractures due to the tight passage of stricter immigration laws in parliament, there has been much conjecture about a possible government move. Macron pledged to launch a fresh political campaign.
The 34-year-old Gabriel Attal, the minister of education, and the 37-year-old Sebastien Lecornu, the minister of defense, are mentioned as possible successors to Borne. If chosen, any of them would become the youngest prime minister in French history.
Pundits have also suggested former agricultural minister Julien Denormandie and finance minister Bruno Le Maire as potential candidates.
The prime minister’s resignation will not necessarily result in a change in political strategy; instead, it will indicate a willingness to put new objectives ahead of the pension and immigration changes, such as achieving full employment.
Borne, the prime minister since May 2022, is a soft-spoken career bureaucrat who worked for many ministers in the Socialist Party before entering Macron’s administration.
She was the second woman to hold the position, and she was 62 years old. Shortly after Macron was reelected for a second term in 2022, Borne’s cabinet and Macron found it challenging to cope with a more tumultuous parliament to enact bills.
Despite the lack of an absolute majority, the advisors to the French president claim that he has passed the most difficult portions of his economic program in the first year and a half of his second mandate and that subsequent reforms—on euthanasia and education, for example—will be more cooperative.
However, Macron’s use of executive powers to approve a contentious increase in the pension age to 64 last year sparked weeks of violent protests. The reorganization will probably make it more competitive in Macron’s camp for the presidency in 2027; Le Maire, Interior Minister Gerard Darmanin, and former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe are all seen as possible contenders.
Comment Template