A fleeting application or a long-term choice? The New Popular Front surprised everyone this summer by proposing the name of the unknown Lucie Castets for Matignon. A solution that arrived late to try to put pressure on Emmanuel Macron after the second round of the legislative elections.
But at the beginning of September, the head of state chose Michel Barnier as Prime Minister. What has become of the senior civil servant trained at ENA since then? Is Lucie Castets still the candidate of the left coalition?
Always on the ground
Less visible in the media, Lucie Castets continues her strange campaign on the ground as best she can. The New Popular Front candidate was at the demonstration against pension reform last week in Paris. She will also be the guest of the “Pop Party”, this Sunday in Hérouville-Saint-Clair in Calvados, for a day of round tables. Or even to the “ecological rural universities”, in the Vosges five days later, to discuss the cost of transport and the agricultural crisis. Small events which illustrate the difficulty of embodying, over time, the link of the fragile left coalition.
“I want to continue to get involved as a traveling companion of the NFP parties. In the longer term, I have to find my place. It’s being considered…” she said to Mondemid-September, implicitly recognizing the difficulty of existing without an elective mandate.
A month later, the senior civil servant is still struggling to find her place, while the media spotlight is now focused on the National Assembly. She dreamed of a “tour de France” to defend the cause of public services, but the left-wing parties did not really help her, now too busy fighting in the hemicycle with the Barnier government and its supporters.
Still the NFP candidate?
NFP deputies presented 10 measures this Wednesday for the preparation of the 2025 budget during a press conference at the National Assembly. And Lucie Castets was indeed present alongside the rebellious Eric Coquerel and other left-wing elected officials. Enough to say that she remains a candidate for Matignon in the event of government censorship? Environmentalists kicked in on Tuesday when they were asked the question. “She participates fully in the life of this political space, she liaises with associations and unions. She is an incarnation of the alternative to the power in place,” replied EELV MP Léa Balage El Mariky.
On the side of the Socialist Party, it is even more vague. After a controversy over the regularization of undocumented immigrants, Olivier Faure did not hesitate to publicly criticize Lucie Castets for her statements. Incidentally, the boss of the PS remained very ambiguous about his future. “Tomorrow, if there is a change of Prime Minister, I don’t know if she is still our candidate,” confirms a close friend of the Prime Secretary to AFP. A socialist deputy also tells us:
« “She embodies the collective, but her name is not the alpha and omega. She has already been proposed and she has not been named… she is one of the figures of the NFP, but it is not automatic, the discussion will have to be restarted in the event of censorship,” he says. »
Same tone with François Hollande, questioned by 20 Minutes on the set of Face aux Territories this Thursday on TV5 Monde. “It’s her place, to be an expert, she is no longer a candidate to be Prime Minister, it is Michel Barnier who was chosen […] She can bring ideas, contribute, that’s what she did,” reacted the former President of the Republic, who has become a deputy again.
Contacted by 20 MinutesLucie Castets and her entourage did not respond to our requests. Speaking to Mediapart this Tuesday, the person said she was “ready” to keep her commitments for Matignon, but recognized that the situation may have changed: “if circumstances evolve, they evolve […] It’s not a question of name, but of substance.” In the meantime, the former finance director of Paris town hall is looking for a new job.
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