As France welcomes 12 million students into classrooms for the start of the school year, President Emmanuel Macron resumes consultations for the appointment of the Prime Minister. Almost two months have passed since the results of the legislative elections of July 7, but the Elysée has preferred to wait and bypass the appointment of the Olympic Games before making a decision that will be controversial in any case. On Monday, September 2, Macron’s agenda is very busy: early in the morning there was the meeting with Bernard Cazeneuve, the name to keep an eye on for a nomination. Then the former heads of state François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy will arrive.
The consultations, which intensified after the summer break, aim to identify a head of government who, according to Macron, can meet the approval of a large number of deputies, in a National Assembly that has never been so fragmented. The president’s real goal, however, seems to be to avoid at all costs a government led by the radical left. In the meantime, the Elysée continues to work assiduously in Europe. On August 30, Macron was in Serbia for a meeting on artificial intelligence. During the visit, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced a $3 billion deal to purchase 12 French warplanes, in a move aimed at distancing the Balkan country from dependence on Russian weapons.
Macron’s rejection of Lucie Castets
Macron has so far refused to grant the New Popular Front, the coalition with the largest number of elected officials despite not being able to count on an absolute majority, the opportunity to govern. The occupant of the Elysée has outright ruled out the candidacy of Lucie Castets, a high-profile official proposed by the New Popular Front parties (La France Insoumise, socialists and ecologists). Macron justified his choice by speaking of the risk of immediate rejection by the National Assembly. The French president has declared that he is making “every effort” to “find the best solution for the country”. However, his strategy risks further exacerbating tempers after an intense and highly polarized electoral battle, which saw many parties unite in the second round to avoid the victory of the Rassemblement National, the far-right party led by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.
Who is Bernard Cazeneuve?
The hottest name to win the prime ministerial post is Bernard Cazeneuve. The 61-year-old politician already has high-profile government experience, having served as interior minister at the time of the jihadist attacks at the Bataclan in 2015, before serving as prime minister in the final months of the five-year term under François Hollande, the Socialist president from 2012 to 2017. Cazeneuve’s current political affiliation remains ambiguous, as he left the Socialist Party in 2022, due to his opposition to the alliance with La France Insoumise, the radical left party, within the New Ecological and Social Popular Union (NUPES). Cazeneuve arrived at the Elysée at 8:45 a.m. on September 2 and is the favorite on Macron’s short-list.
Macron vs. Everyone: How France Falls Into Political Paralysis
“Bernard Cazeneuve is not running, but if he does it is out of duty and to avoid further difficulties for the country,” his entourage explained before the meeting. The president is counting on the former Socialist to create a government in which the centrist and liberal bloc of his party plays a leading role, despite not having emerged first at the polls. Cazeneuve’s name could guarantee him both tacit support from the right and the far right, and a fracture within the left bloc. Despite his long-standing militancy in the ranks of the Socialists, Cazeneuve risks being divisive for his former party comrades. The current secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, has already said he is against it, given that Cazeneuve “has not obtained or even sought the support of the Popular Front”.
Who is Xavier Bertrand, the right-wing man that Sarkozy likes?
Macron has relied on the advice, at least on paper, of two former presidents. François Hollande could try to dissuade Macron from insisting on the nomination of Cazeneuve, while Nicolas Sarkozy, a former right-wing president, could insist on another name: that of Xavier Bertrand. The 59-year-old politician, current president of the right-wing party Les Républicains and of a region in northern France, would be interested in the nomination, but the rest of his party does not seem inclined to form an alliance with the centrists. Their goal would be to reach the 2027 presidential elections as Macron’s opponents, not as his allies in a hastily cobbled together coalition. A glimmer of hope for Macron comes from the far right, which could avoid voting against the prime minister that resulted from his nomination. The Rassemblement National, however, says it is convinced it will vote in opposition when the time comes to express its opinion on the budget, whose proposal for 2025 must be presented by October 1. The hourglass is ticking inexorably and Macron’s time to get new friends and old enemies to agree on a new government is running out.
