Will Bernard Cazeneuve be Prime Minister in exceptional circumstances? After allowing François Hollande, who was questioned on all sides, to end his five-year mandate in 2017, will the former Prime Minister (2016-2017) emerge from the crisis in Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year mandate? The name of the former socialist seems, in any case, to stand out for Matignon, at the end of a week of consultations at the Elysée Palace.
A statesman respected by both the right and the left, Bernard Cazeneuve is one of the few personalities who does not “I would not immediately rally a majority of the Assembly against him”say those close to the head of state, who has made “no censorship” the first criterion for choosing his prime minister.
“We must appoint a person who is capable of uniting the left and the right” and who is “notoriously independent” of the President of the Republic, former Education Minister Jean-Michel Blanquer (2017-2022) recommended to France Inter on Thursday, citing in particular the name of Bernard Cazeneuve. Indeed, the former Minister of the Interior (2014-2016) is not a “annoying” Neither for the right nor for the far right, we stressed at the Elysée Palace at the end of the consultations.
And even if the pill was hard to swallow for some, the socialist group in the National Assembly would not immediately censure a Cazeneuve government. But the former socialist “He will have to justify himself to the left and give it guarantees”warns a former minister of François Hollande. The Socialist Party (PS) has already listed totemic measures, such as the repeal of the pension reform or the increase of the minimum wage.
“Aroma of coexistence”
At odds with Emmanuel Macron since his former government colleague left for the 2017 presidential election, Bernard Cazeneuve has not been short of criticizing François Hollande’s successor since then. His appointment to Matignon would also have this “smell of coexistence” wanted by the head of state, who has promised not to appoint any prime minister from his camp. The three-way cohabitation between the President of the Republic, the Government and the National Assembly, the future political architecture, already has a name in the Elysée “coalition”an acronym that is born from the fusion between coalition and coexistence.
However, Bernard Cazeneuve has not yet been offered anything. He repeats to his interlocutors that he is not a candidate for anything. Although he spoke during the summer with Patrice Vergriete, the resigning Minister of Transport, also from the PS, and with the former Macronist president of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand, the associate lawyer of the prestigious law firm August Debouzy has not heard from Emmanuel Macron or his advisers for months, and is annoyed that his name is coming to light without having had the slightest discussion with the castle. If he is contacted, he suggests that he will look into the matter, given the emergency situation in which the country finds itself. “I have never refused to bring wisdom where there is unreason”He said in early August at LCI, his only concern was that “ the country does not fall into degradation, into ungovernability “.
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