Lucie Castets does not give up despite Emmanuel Macron’s refusal

The nomination of the Prime Minister is getting closer and could be very quick after the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games. The Lucie Castets hypothesis does not seem to be favored by the Elysée. However, the candidate of the New Popular Front for Matignon is not giving up.

She is not the type to give up. She is said to be determined, a perfectionist, demanding of herself. She had asked nothing of anyone and at this time, she should be on vacation in Tuscany. But 2 weeks ago, on July 22, after the failure of the hypotheses Laurence Tubiana, Huguette Bello, Benoit Hamon, to take the left to Matignon, her name was pulled out of the hat and since then she has done nothing else.

She is starting from scratch with the 4 PS/PC/ecolo and Insoumis. Her first meeting with the “Faure, Roussel, Tondelier, Bompard” took place on Monday, July 29, 2024. A new point by video is planned this week. She is getting to know each other, as she is with the presidents of parliamentary groups that she also consults a lot to prepare this “government back-to-school plan”. How can we legally increase the minimum wage to €1,600, repeal the asylum-immigration law or the pensions law? They do not always agree, including on the retirement age, but they are making progress.

The contact is going rather well with Marine Tondelier who accompanied her to Lille and then to Duralex to make herself known too. Olivier Faure hardly knows her any more – even if it was he who suggested her name. He had “met” her last summer at the “Festival of Ideas” in Nièvre and as a socialist elected official summed up: “He knew that she would not worry Mélenchon in his leadership for 2027“. It was he who finally validated the candidacy, which did not fail to irritate the PS and which suggests some “tensions” in forming a possible government.

Lucie Castets will therefore have had two and a half weeks to take on a double challenge: trying to maintain an impression of cohesion in this New Popular Front and convincing Emmanuel Macron to appoint her as Prime Minister. Which in itself seems incompatible since Emmanuel Macron clearly announced in the Council of Ministers that he “would not govern with La France Insoumise”.

With the 193 NFP deputies, Lucie Castets says she is certain to find coalitions text by text.How can we not imagine, she said, a broad consensus on the revaluation of night salaries for nurses, for example?” she explains in Le World this weekend. According to a source close to her, the financial director of Paris City Hall has still not received a phone call from the Elysée, nor from any resigning minister, whom she does not even know.

In the Olympic stands, we still saw a few deputies from the left wing of Macron’s party come and offer perches to those from the NFP.