Thierry Beaudet, the chef’s surprise? – Libération

Some predicted that the new Prime Minister would be Xavier Bertrand, others were betting on the appointment of Bernard Cazeneuve. It could ultimately be neither of them. For several hours on Monday, September 2, another name has been invited into the race for Matignon: that of Thierry Beaudet. Two months after the early legislative elections, Emmanuel Macron could designate the president of the Economic and Social Council (CESE) at Matignon in the evening. According to The Obsthe President contacted Beaudet last Friday. Since then, the two men have not stopped exchanging and have even met in person twice. It was on Sunday evening that the sixty-year-old, according to the weekly, gave his agreement to be appointed Prime Minister to the tenant of the Elysée. On condition, however, that “to be able to give a left turn”, says one of his relatives.

According to our information, several senior officials have been approached to join his future cabinet. The Elysée has already, according to The Worldfound a chief of staff in the person of Bertrand Gaume, prefect of the North and Hauts-de-France. If this new hypothesis for Matignon were to be confirmed, it would be because the head of state, after weeks of procrastination, would finally choose a more technical than political profile. But a man gravitating in the networks of French social democracy. In the hope, no doubt, that his CV stamped “civil society” does not cause immediate censure in the National Assembly, participates in the “institutional stability” wanted by the head of state and avoids the return of Hollande to power as with Bernard Cazeneuve.

A career in mutual insurance companies

Unknown to the general public, Thierry Beaudet is a former schoolteacher who worked in the mutual insurance sector. In 2009, he became president of the Mutuelle générale de l’Education nationale (MGEN) after having been deputy director of the local section of Calvados. In 2016, he bounced back at the head of the Fédération nationale de la mutualité française, a position he held until 2021. That year, the native of Domfront (Orne) was elected president of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE). “We must defend and embody the principle of a mixed and continuous democracy which goes beyond parliamentarianism and which further mixes the decisions of elected officials and the opinions of society’s actors”he said at the time of his election.

At the end of June, Thierry Beaudet had estimated in the Tribunethat the dissolution of the National Assembly decided by Emmanuel Macron «[plongeait] France in an unprecedented political and democratic crisis.” “I did not understand this decision”he insisted, explaining that in “Three weeks, no political party can listen to the suffering and aspirations of citizens, deduce a solid project from it, confront it with those of its rivals, put it into the public debate, compose a list of 577 serious and prepared candidates.”

Although it is still only at the hypothesis stage on Monday 2 September early in the evening, the possibility of Thierry Beaudet being appointed to Matignon has already caused a reaction. “The NFP will support a candidate who can change the policies being conducted in this country”announced this Monday Lucie Castets, the candidate of the left alliance for Matignon, in parallel with a trip to Seine-Saint-Denis with the education unions. “What seems important to me is to have a mandate, the mandate of the New Popular Front which came out on top in the elections.”she also added about the possible nomination of Thierry Beaudet. For her part, the president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, a supporter of Bernard Cazeneuve, considered this possibility “surprising” : “He is a man of quality, but he has no experience, has never governed, never worked to bring together political forces.”