Who is Lucie Castets, proposed by the New Popular Front for the post of Prime Minister?

Aged 37, a young graduate of the ENA and spokesperson for the collective Nos services publics, Lucie Castets hopes to lead a New Popular Front government, despite Emmanuel Macron’s refusal.

Unknown to the general public, Lucie Castets was propelled to the forefront of the political scene on Tuesday, July 23. After 16 days of negotiations, the New Popular Front announced that it had agreed on her personality for the post of Prime Minister. A proposal immediately dismissed by Emmanuel Macron during his interview on France Télévisions a few minutes later, but which did not discourage the aspiring Prime Minister.

Guest on France Inter’s 8:20 a.m. news on Wednesday morning, Lucie Castets denounced a ““denial of democracy”and called Emmanuel Macron at “take his responsibilities” by appointing her to Matignon. Franceinfo looks back at the career of this new head, to whom the left wishes to give the reins of government.

Having studied at Sciences Po, ENA, the General Directorate of the Treasury and Tracfin

A former student of Sciences Po and the London School of Economics, Lucie Castets is also a graduate of the 2013 class. Jean Zay from the ENA, according to her LinkedIn profile. At the end of her training as an ENA graduate, she joined the Ministry of Economy and Finance in 2014 at the General Directorate of the Treasury. She was initially assistant, then appointed head of the Office of Export Credits and International Guarantees.

Lucie Castets is also an expert in the repression of fraud and financial crime. Between 2018 and 2020, she worked for Tracfin, the financial intelligence unit of Bercy, which fights against money laundering, terrorist financing and public finance fraud.

Advisor then director of finances for the city of Paris

In September 2020, Lucie Castets left Tracfin and became a finance and budget advisor to the city of Paris. She was then appointed director of finance and purchasing for the capital three years later and currently holds this position. Interviewed by AFP, the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, talks about “a very good finance director”which manages a budget of 10 billion euros “with great seriousness and without bankrupting the city, with investments in the ecological transition and social issues”.

“A joke in bad taste, I guess.”tackled Sébastion Chenu, vice-president of the National Rally on X, criticizing “the totally catastrophic budgetary situation” of the capital. “The debt of the city of Paris is not comparable to the debt of the French state, so it is a bit ironic to hear lessons from the people responsible for the debt of the French state.”retorted Lucie Castets, guest on France Inter on Wednesday July 24.

Candidate on a Socialist Party list in 2015

Born in Caen, Lucie Castets, then aged 28, was a candidate in the 2015 regional elections on the Calvados list of the Socialist Party, recalls West France. The ENA graduate, interviewed by AFP, admits to having been a member of the Socialist Party around 2008-2011. Close to the “need for the left” movement led by the former socialist finance minister, Pierre Moscovici, Lucie Castets was notably involved in the fight for marriage for all, gender equality, but also for a better redistribution of global finances. In the 2010s, she was also part of the think tank Point d’ancre, claimed “social reformist”Today, she claims to have no partisan affiliation.

Co-founder of the collective Nos services publics and member of the National Observatory of the Far Right

Lucy Castets is also co-founder and spokesperson for the collective Nos services publics, a collective resolutely opposed to the outgoing government’s policy for the civil service, which fights for “rediscover the meaning that underpins public service and its daily missions”. At the same time, she is also member of the office of the National Observatory of the Far Right, alongside the Insoumis Thomas Portes and Caroline Fiat, and the environmentalist Marine Tondelier.

“She has a remarkable professional career in the service of the State and local authorities, with strong commitments to tax justice and the fight against tax evasion,” “We are very proud of our work,” Arnaud Bontemps, co-founder of Nos services publics, told AFP. “He is a person who is very committed to the school, the hospital, and social justice.”he adds.

A technical and civil society profile to break the deadlock

An expert in the fight against tax fraud, committed to more public service and against the extreme right, the technical and non-partisan profile of Lucy Castets allowed the leaders of the New Popular Front to agree on a name for Matignon.“She ticks a lot of boxes”judges in fact the secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, on BFMTV, also saluting a woman “committed to the fight against financial crime”. “A great defender of public services, Lucie Castets will be the Prime Minister of social and ecological progress”reacted the general secretary of the PS, Pierre Jouvet.

“It’s a real surprise”believes political scientist Bruno Cautrès on franceinfo, following the announcement of the agreement reached between the leaders of the New Popular Front. “We witnessed a terrible game of ping-pong between the Socialist Party and La France Insoumise, so the only solution was to find someone who was outside”he analyses, stressing that the name Lucie Castets had until then “not circulated”.

“The repeal of pension reform” and the “end of the regression of public services” as a compass

Lucie Castets is mobilized in the “associative struggles for the defense and promotion of public services”but also “in the battle of ideas against retirement at 64”describes the press release published by the New Popular Front on Tuesday evening. Questioned by AFP, the aspiring Prime Minister declared that among her “big priorities” L’“repeal of pension reform” by Emmanuel Macron, a “major tax reform so that everyone, individuals and multinationals, pays their fair share”a “improvement of purchasing power” by the revaluation of salaries, the increase in social benefits, as well as the “end of the regression of public services”She also claims to have accepted “in all humility, but with great conviction” the proposal of the New Popular Front, considering it to be a candidate “credible and serious” for Matignon.

Lucy Castets intends to pursue a political line, at the head of a left-wing government, which is a consensus among all the components of the New Popular Front: the strengthening of public services in order to push back the extreme right. “The disintegration of public services was part of what fuelled the votes for the National Rally”believes Lucie Castets on France Inter, who also assures that she is convinced that “MPs outside the New Popular Front will take responsibility when we propose texts likely to improve the functioning of public services”.