At first glance, it is a comfortable choice for the president, in terms of trust, loyalty. They are already working together and Elisabeth Borne should not overshadow him. She is a pro of public decision-making, in ministerial cabinets under the left, then at the head of the RATP. For five years, she has even become the “Swiss Army knife” minister of Macronie. Each president has had at least one: François Hollande counted on Bernard Cazeneuve, Nicolas Sarkozy on Xavier Bertrand, before falling out, Jacques Chirac on Michèle Alliot-Marie among others… All-terrain ministers, capable of going from one portfolio to another, often to extinguish a crisis.
Since 2017, Elisabeth Borne has in turn managed Transport, Ecological Transition and finally Employment. She showed firmness there, during the reforms of the SNCF and unemployment insurance, but she also dialogued with the social partners. Not useless in view of the emergencies to come on purchasing power or pensions. Elisabeth Borne therefore ticked a number of boxes to land at Matignon. His name is also the very first that had circulated.
Because he hesitated and tested other hypotheses. But each of them has sparked tensions within its majority. The latest possibility, the former chiraco-Sarkozyst minister Catherine Vautrin, has sparked strong criticism because she leaned too far to the right in the eyes of many walkers.
This is where we touch, five years after his advent, at the limits of macronism: not really on the left, but not completely on the right either. And Emmanuel Macron may well challenge this divide, those he recruits have had a life before knowing him, commitments, positions, responsibilities. To the right or to the left. Hence the temptation of the least risk, that which consists in opting for a more “techno” profile, of the type of Elisabeth Borne. A pro, therefore, who has always served the state rather than one side or the other, and whose political existence also began with the election of Emmanuel Macron.
The real novelty is that it is a woman. She is only the second female Prime Minister in the entire history of the Republic. The first, Edith Cresson, was 31 years ago… This gesture was expected. There was urgency. The government will also be joint. Not sure, however, that this is enough to define the “new president”, the “new mandate” and the “new method” promised by Emmanuel Macron during his inauguration.