Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term officially ends this Friday night at midnight, to open up for a second term. On the evening of his re-election, the President of the Republic had promised to establish for the next five years a “refounded” “method” of governance and assured that the vote of voters who had gone to the polls to block the ‘far right “forced him”. “This new era will not be no continuity of the quinquennium which is coming to an end”, promised the outgoing president during his victory speech.
A new Prime Minister who is long overdue
This new era therefore opens… with a slight setback since the expectation of the appointment of Jean Castex’s successor persists, who will remain in his post as Prime Minister. at least until Sunday evening. On Sunday, the head of government will indeed honor a last trip: the canonization in the Vatican of the French explorer Charles de Foucauld, who became a priest and hermit. The Prime Minister should present the resignation of his government in stride, Sunday evening or Monday morning. He will still continue to take care of the current affairs of the country until the appointment of a new government. There is therefore no power vacuum.
“The torture becomes long”, quips Patrick Kanner, former Minister of the City, Youth and Sports under François Hollande, invited this Friday on franceinfo. In theory, the Prime Minister can continue to dispatch current affairs until the legislative elections of June 12 and 19.
Emmanuel Macron “don’t row, he takes his time” justified Monday Christophe Castaner, president of the LREM group in the National Assembly, also invited on franceinfo. Especially since the name of the next Prime Minister will be decisive for the president. He or she should “compensate for” the weaknesses of the Head of State, who still seems “not attentive enough, sometimes contemptuous, authoritarian”estimates the director of political studies of the Kantar institute, Emmanuel Rivière, questioned by AFP.
Emmanuel Macron assured Monday in Berlin that he already knew who would be his next Prime Minister, endowed according to him with a profile “social”, “ecological” and productive”. A woman in Matignon, a scenario which seems to be favored by the Head of State, would be highly symbolic. The Minister of Labor Elisabeth Borne, the Director General of Unesco Audrey Azoulay, the former Socialist Minister of Social Affairs Marisol Touraine… Several names with a “techno” profile are circulating.
“To appease the rejection he gives off”
Once the new government has been appointed, a priori at the beginning of next week, what type of governance should the French expect? On the voter side, “the expectation of change is very strong and the commitments made by the president will be closely scrutinized. The French will take him in words and deeds”warns the president of the Elabe institute, Bernard Sananès, joined by AFP.
In actions above all, because on the side of words, the Head of State this is not his first promise of change : during the crisis of “yellow vests”, then of the Covid, he had promised each time to “reinvent”. And even if he was re-elected against Marine Le Pen with 58.55% of the vote, the presidential election did not dispel the accusations against the head of state, considered too “elitist”, “arrogant” and “vertical” by part of the French, estimates Benjamin Morel, lecturer at the University of Paris 2, with AFP.
“We must appease the rejection he gives off, there are too many French people tense against him”also notes a former government official, even if he considers this rejection “a bit irrational”. “Macron Ie must find the right balance between distance and proximity. He must get rid of this elite image because people need empathy”, he adds.
Purchasing power and consultation
For this new five-year term, the president says he is aware of the “gravity of times” and promise a “new method” in “the respect and association of all”Parliament, social partners and “living forces” of civil society. Especially since this new mandate begins at a time when the challenges, amplified by the war in Ukraine, are accumulating, with unprecedented inflation since the introduction of the euro and sluggish growth.
Purchasing power and evolution of the democratic system are indeed part of the priorities of the French for this second five-year term, according to the major survey carried out by France Bleu before the presidential election with a million participants. Two trends confirmed more recently by a survey by Elabe carried out from May 10 to 11 for BFMTV / L’Express / SFR, in which the people questioned demand above all social issues (50%), in particular the defense of purchasing power , more recourse to referendums (29%) and more proportional to legislative elections (24%).
The citizen consultations, such as the great debate organized during the “yellow vests” crisis or the citizens’ convention on the climate, could reappear. But on divisive subjects such as retirement at 65, this type of approach is “much more delicate” to be implemented because “risk of negative feedback” are great, points out Benjamin Morel, lecturer at the University of Paris 2. “For it to work, the results must be concrete, insists Bernard Sananès, president of the Elabe Institute. If it’s just a listening process, that’s fine, but it won’t be enough.