Headlines: Jean Castex Prime Minister, a prosecutor in Matignon

Audio 05:31

By: Norbert Navarro

Publicity

Surprise or disappointment? The press is engaged in a real formula competition this Saturday morning to discuss the appointment of Jean Castex to Matignon.

And not only the French press. Witness the Financial Times . According to this British daily, Emmanuel Macron chose "  the modest bureaucrat Jean Castex to be his Prime Minister in an attempt to revive his presidency before the elections of 2022  ".

On television, Friday evening, the French therefore discovered the "  modest bureaucrat  ", which Le Figaro depicts in three words: "  Roots, simplicity, roundness  ". Jean Castex is "  Macron's surprise  ", launches this daily. By naming him, Emmanuel Macron intends to demonstrate that he always has "  the ability to surprise  " by choosing "the  one we did not imagine in this position and who signs the Macronian audacity  ". But with Castex in Matignon, "  it is Macron who plays his all-rounder  ", decrypts Le Figaro , Jean Castex will be a "  secretary general of the government  ".

It was inevitable, the word which also comes up many times under the pen of the editorialists, is the word "  collaborator  ", that the former head of state Nicolas Sarkozy had one day used to evoke his Prime Minister François Fillon. A word that had shocked in its time and to which we prefer to substitute here that of "  procurator  ", in reference, of course, to Emmanuel Macron's concern, through the appointment of Jean Castex, to please what is appropriate. 'to call henceforth "  the territories  " and that, formerly, from the Romans until a recent past, passing through that of Blaise Pascal, we still dared to call "  the provinces  ". 

Jean Castex the provincial, then? It is an "  unknown  " who was appointed to Matignon, point en Une Le Parisien , and it is "  Macron's bet  ".

But behind this unknown to the French, the print media especially sees Emmanuel Macron going to the front line

For La Croix for example, no doubt, Emmanuel Macron is now "  in the countryside  ". The Catholic daily is convinced of this: "  Everything in the decision to reshuffle its government projects the country around 2022  ", states La Croix .

Le Parisien underlines the “ little hidden  ” intention  of the Head of State to “  take over the reins  ”. In this daily, an "  old acquaintance  " of Emmanuel Macron does not even hesitate to pronounce a concise constitutional requiem. "  There is no longer a Fifth Republic ," said this anonymous man to the Parisian . It is the president who will be Prime Minister. There he takes a collaborator . "

Formula competition, I said? Words that go beyond thought? What can we say about this “evening visitor” of Emmanuel Macron also quoted by Le Parisien , and who explains that the president needed an “  executant  ”!

Don't throw it away anymore? The newspaper Liberation hardly writes anything else… The nomination of the “  Monsieur déconfinement  ” of the government of Édouard Philippe to the French prime minister inspires in this daily newspaper a formula of Une according to which the president “  confines Matignon  ”, because the French Prime Minister, it is now ... Emmanuel Macron himself.

According to Libé , it is indeed rather a "  chief of staff  " that the president appointed to replace Edouard Philippe. "  Emmanuel Macron means by this that he is now playing his all, that he takes in hand all the orders, and will embody, alone or almost, the decisions that will be made in the next two years  ", estimates in Libé consequence . Journal according to which the appointment of Jean Castex to Matignon "  practically nullifies the hypothesis of a " turning point " in the five-year term, about which we have buttered countless sandwiches. Having sailed between Fillon, Sarkozy and Bertrand, Castex is a man of the right with a current model, solidly pragmatic and conservative  ”. And in terms of "  turning point  ", Liberation expects from it a "  turn in a straight line  "!

With Jean Castex, the “  new path  ” will not go “  either to the left or to the green  ”, specifies Ouest-France . First print of the daily regional press in France, this daily newspaper in the west of the country notes the similarities between Jean Castex and his predecessor. “  He comes from the right, like Édouard Philippe. He is mayor (…) just like Édouard Philippe (…) . He is just as little known to the general public as Edouard Philippe at the time of his appointment  ”. We now know the rest…

Dismissal confirmed by the Paris Court of Appeal in the case of the attack on the plane of the Rwandan ex-president Juvénal Habyarimana

A judgment rendered "for  lack of sufficient charges  " and which leads the newspaper Liberation to wonder if we will one day know "  who killed the Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana  ", and what will be "  the continuation? Who will take up the possibility of a track leading to incriminate the Hutu extremists  ", but also"  the French track, the last not to have been explored. It is basically the most dizzying  ", states Libé , that"  mentioned in 1994 by the Belgian journalist Colette Braeckman, who had then advanced the hypothesis of the implication in the attack of two French soldiers  ", track to which Liberation seems to be giving credit.

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• Newspaper
• France
• Jean Castex
• Edouard Philippe
• Emmanuel Macron
• French politics