Why is the appointment of the new Prime Minister taking longer than expected?

The appointment of the new Prime Minister, barring further developments, must be announced on Friday morning. However, it was hoped for the evening before. If the date becomes clearer, nothing is leaking on the identity of the future tenant of Matignon.

Many observers expected an announcement from the President of the Republic upon his return from Poland on Thursday, December 12, after his decision to shorten his stay, to the point of scrutinizing the route of his plane to find out when he was going land in Paris. But upon the arrival of Emmanuel Macron, shortly before 8 p.m., the Élysée announced that the nomination would be postponed until Friday morning. Obviously, when it takes longer than expected, it is most certainly because the choice of the President of the Republic has not been made, or at least, was not made on Thursday evening.

If the announcement was not made in the evening, it was to allow the President of the Republic to “conclude your consultations”, said his entourage to franceinfo. A rather vague explanation. The Head of State obviously made a few phone calls, including on the plane returning from Poland, to take stock of everyone's positions, particularly those of his partners. A way to ensure that he will not lose any of his family by making this or that choice.

If the Élysée is talking about an announcement on Friday morning, it is because the president will have made a decision by then. However, a parliamentary advisor assures franceinfo that even those close to the head of state know nothing about it. Nothing is leaking about the names.

As for a possible appointment of François Bayrou to Matignon, we hear everything and its opposite in everyone's entourage. Some think that the president's MoDem ally remains “the greatest common denominator”, the most solid track, and the most likely to find a non-censorship agreement going from left to right. Others, on the contrary, believe that if it were him, the announcement would have already been made. “If he doesn't name it, it's going to be a big shock,” threatens a MoDem deputy. Another name is gaining weight, that of the former Minister of Industry, Roland Lescure, despite criticism from certain Macronists.

Within the other parties, there is a lot of annoyance. “It becomes a sketch”, blows a pillar of MoDem. A PS heavyweight judges the episode “lamentable” and talks about a president “greatly cynical, and increasingly powerless”. However, if we take a step back, remember that it took Emmanuel Macron 51 days to appoint Michel Barnier. There, if the announcement is actually made Friday morning, it will only be nine days.