After rumours had cast doubt on her political future, President Emmanuel Macron announced on the evening of Monday, July 17th, that he was confirming Élisabeth Borne as prime minister. A slight reshuffle of the government in other secondary posts is expected before the end of the week, as consultations with the new ministers are underway.
“To ensure stability and in-depth work, the President of the Republic has decided to keep the Prime Minister in place,” explained a source quoted by Agence France Presse. The “adjustments” to her team requested by Élisabeth Borne are expected in the coming days. The prime minister will be accompanied by a new chief of staff specialising in labour law.
The president of the French Republic will be speaking towards the end of the week, probably to the regional daily press, in an attempt to take stock of the famous “hundred days” (cent-jours) that he had set himself to give his policies a new direction after the stormy vote on pension reform in April.
The fact that Élisabeth Borne has been kept in her position is a sign of satisfaction on the part of President Macron. “The objective of the hundred days has been met and calm has returned,” and “14 July was a success”, the same source told AFP. The executive had feared a resumption of rioting during the Bastille Day festivities, but the unrest was limited on this occasion.
The opposition forces greeted the news of Borne’s confirmation in acerbic and circumspect terms.
“This choice is logical, Emmanuel Macron maintains Emmanuel Macron,” Alexis Corbière, the LFI MP for Seine-Saint-Denis, quipped on France info on Monday, denouncing the fact that “the same policy is going to continue.”
For MEP Manon Aubry, the reappointment of Élisabeth Borne is above all proof that no credible candidate has come forward to succeed her, and that Emmanuel Macron is having a hard time convincing others to come and work for him—an analysis shared by the weekly Marianne, for whom Borne’s retention is above all “an admission of impotence.”
Les Républicains, for their part, are denouncing the executive tandem’s lack of capacity for action: all the “essential issues such as immigration, labour and France’s debt” are “swept under the carpet,” complains LR MP Fabien Di Filippo, who condemns the “lethargy” and “inaction” at the highest level of government.
Finally, Rassemblement National spokesman Laurent Jacobelli described Borne’s confirmation as a “failure bonus.” On France info, he too drew up an uncompromising assessment of the prime minister’s actions at the behest of the president:
Emmanuel Macron had given his Prime Minister 100 days to create a feeling of appeasement in France. We ended up with the riots we saw. He had asked her to change the daily lives of the French. But petrol is still as expensive as ever, as are basic consumer goods.
Despite a “red light at all levels,” the president chose to keep his confidence in his prime minister: further proof, according to Jacobelli, of his “disconnection” from the reality experienced by the French.
The RN MP also returned to the “failure” of the pension reform. Since the text was voted through, the press has been quick to release a key piece of information: the reform will do nothing to reduce the deficit as promised. Jacobelli sums up the situation in these terms: “it will cost about as much as it does today, but we’ll have to work two years longer.”
Deaf to this criticism, the members of the Renaissance group prefer to congratulate themselves on the “tangible results” achieved by Élisabeth Borne, without going into further detail.
