The denouement is approaching in the quest for a Prime Minister. Emmanuel Macron is receiving Bernard Cazeneuve and Xavier Bertrand on Monday, whose names are mentioned for Matignon, as well as François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy as part of consultations to find a personality who will not be immediately censored by a majority of deputies.
Arriving first at 8:45 a.m., the former socialist Prime Minister is ready to return to Matignon even if nothing has been decided nearly two months after the legislative elections which resulted in a National Assembly without a majority.
“Bernard Cazeneuve is not asking for it, but if he does it is out of duty and to avoid additional difficulties for the country,” his entourage explained on Sunday.
Emmanuel Macron, who could make the appointment on Tuesday, is looking for a prime minister who will not be immediately censured in the National Assembly.
It was by putting forward this reason that he rejected the nomination of Lucie Castets, presented by the New Popular Front parties (LFI-PS-Ecologistes-PCF), a left-wing alliance which came out on top in the last legislative elections.
But Emmanuel Macron also wants the central bloc to be part of the future majority. “We must invent a third form of Fifth Republic: neither coalition nor cohabitation,” according to his entourage.
Minister of the Interior during the 2015 attacks, then Prime Minister during the last months of François Hollande’s five-year term, Bernard Cazeneuve, 61, left the PS in 2022, fiercely opposed to the alliance with LFI within the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes).
Although he could have the support of the central bloc and part of the right, he is not supported by any of the left-wing parties, even if his arrival at Matignon could divide the socialists.
– Right-wing Prime Minister? –
“I’m not giving him a chance. He belongs to the old world of Hollandism, which we want to turn the page on,” repeated LFI MP leader Mathilde Panot on France 2 on Monday.
“What guarantees does Bernard Cazeneuve have, if not to be tomorrow in reality a prisoner of a majority, a coalition, that of Emmanuel Macron (…) even though he did not obtain and even sought the support of the Popular Front”, stressed the First Secretary of the PS Olivier Faure on BFMTV/RMC.
Received at 11:00 a.m., François Hollande should not dissuade Emmanuel Macron from appointing Bernard Cazeneuve, unlike Nicolas Sarkozy who is expected at 12:15 p.m.
The former president wants a “right-wing Prime Minister” and believes that Xavier Bertrand would be “a good choice”.
The 59-year-old president of Hauts-de-France, who has made no secret of the fact that he is interested in the position, will succeed him in Emmanuel Macron’s office.
But this supporter of a Gaullist and social right does not have the support of the leaders of the Republicans, led by Laurent Wauquiez, who want to arrive as opponents in the 2027 presidential election and refuse any coalition or participation in the future government.
For the RN Jean-Philippe Tanguy, MM Cazeneuve and Bertrand “are more or less defrocked Macronists”. If the far-right party could not immediately censure a new Prime Minister, it would “probably” do so at the time of the budget, he added on TF1.
It is also necessary for Emmanuel Macron and his future Prime Minister to agree on the terms of their agreement, which must not be “a cohabitation of confrontation” but a “co-responsibility” according to the leader of the Modem François Bayrou who should also be received in the afternoon. “A coalition”, dares one in the presidential entourage, using a neologism that mixes the words cohabitation and coalition.
The unpopular reform on retirement at 64 will be one of the delicate subjects to be addressed while Emmanuel Macron fears seeing his record unravel. Why not a “freeze” of the reform and new discussions with the unions, rather than a pure and simple repeal, suggested PS deputy Jérôme Guedj on Sunday.
However, time is running out for a new government as the 2025 budget must be tabled in parliament by October 1 at the latest. Marine Le Pen on Monday renewed her request for an extraordinary session of parliament in September, the agenda of which should include “a debate on public finances.”
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