He was almost unknown on July 3, 2020 when he was appointed Prime Minister in place of Édouard Philippe. Jean Castex was that day the surprise of the chef concocted by Emmanuel Macron. Mayor of Prades (Pyrénées-Orientales) for twelve years before his arrival at Matignon, Deputy Secretary General of the Presidency of the Republic between 2011 and 2012, regional councilor of Languedoc-Roussillon from 2010 to 2015 and departmental councilor of Pyrénées-Orientales from 2015 in 2020, the rather discreet fifty-year-old changed dimension by accepting the post of head of government for the second part of the five-year term of the President of the Republic.
Today, Monday May 16, 2022, Jean Castex is living his last hours as Prime Minister. The former senior official would like to return to his native region and take some rest. It must be said that the tenant of Matignon has seen all the colors in recent months. In the continuity of Édouard Philippe, he continued to manage the health crisis with his government and faced the mistrust of French people against the establishment of a health pass, initially set up until November 15, 2021.
The grueling test of power has left its mark. Jean Castex would also have noticed a serious decline in his eyesight since his accession to the post of Prime Minister. Everyone still remembers this comical scene where the head of government painfully searches for his glasses in his suit when they are already on his nose.
But Jean Castex’s health problems also have their sympathetic side. Indeed, it was by multiplying the round trips to the Pyrénées-Orientales where he was then treated for asthma problems that he was able to meet the woman of his life, a “pure Catalan“, as he had described to our colleagues from Paris Match.
CT
See also: Jean Castex inadvertently gives the middle finger in front of the cameras