The question burns on their lips. But this Wednesday, December 11, none of the Macronist senators invited to lunch in the portrait room of the Elysée dares to broach the subject in front of the President of the Republic. When, suddenly, finishing his slice of veal, Emmanuel Macron himself evokes the future “prime minister”he said. “The or the?” »tempts, in front of him, the elected official of Côte-d’Or (Renaissance) François Patriat in search of a meager clue on the profile of the next head of government. “He or she, you are right, François, the prime minister”corrects the President of the Republic, picking up the thread of his sentence leaving the audience in a thick fog.
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It’s been a week since Michel Barnier was censored by left and far-right deputies in the National Assembly. A week that the country is led by a resigned government. And a week that the political world is hanging on the presidential decision to know who will lead the executive, spreading the names of potential candidates to better promote them or bury them.
Will the Prime Minister be left-wing, as demanded by the Socialist Party (PS)? Right-wing, as the Republicans (LR) hope? Centrist? Macronist? The head of state seems to hesitate, weighing up the different scenarios. “When you are President of the Republic, the rule is: when you have made your choice, you say it. If Emmanuel Macron says nothing, it is because he has not decided », Underlined, Wednesday evening, Gaspard Gantzer, François Hollande’s former communicator.
The “temporality of one’s choice”
In front of the representatives of the different forces in Parliament – excluding La France insoumise (LFI) and the National Rally (RN) –, invited to the Elysée on Tuesday evening, Emmanuel Macron undertook to speak out “within forty-eight hours”, suggesting that the mystery would be cleared up on Thursday, December 12 in the evening. Some people believe it. Others don’t. Many times, presidential deadlines have been missed, we remember at the Elysée. After saying that the replacement for the 73-year-old former European Commissioner (LR) would be appointed promptly – within the “twenty-four hours” following the censorship, promised the entourage of the Head of State – time has dragged on.
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There is no hurry, the head of state seems to mean. Certainly, the country does not have a budget for the year 2025, the government having been overthrown before being able to have this text adopted. But the special law, presented during the council of ministers on Wednesday, must “guarantee the continuity of national life”. Examined on Monday, December 16, in a public session at the Assembly, it can be defended by a resigning government. Leaving doubt over when the name of the future tenant of Matignon will be announced, Maud Bregeon, government spokesperson, indicated on Wednesday that the president had not reported any “temporality of one’s choice”, during the meeting of ministers.
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