Paris (AFP)

It is an enarque "who knows how to count", a close friend of Nicolas Sarkozy, elected local of the South and of the "rural world", and the conductor of the deconfinement: here are five things to know about Jean Castex, appointed Prime Minister on Friday .

ENA and Court of Auditors

Jean Castex is a product of the high administration, student of the promotion Victor Hugo of the ENA (1989-1991), alongside Frédéric Salat-Baroux, the former secretary general of the Elysée and son-in-law of Jacques Chirac.

After the ENA, he joined the Court of Auditors, then chained the positions in the administration, at the head of the management of hospitals then director of cabinet of Xavier Bertrand, a relative, at the Ministry of Health (2006-2007) and Labor (2007-2008).

"He is a great clerk of the state and in addition he is a master adviser at the Court of Auditors, that means that he can count. And it is in our interest to have someone who can count the billions" facing the Covid-19 crisis, points out on France Info Camille Pascal, who collaborated with him at the Elysée Palace during Nicolas Sarkozy's five-year term.

Sarkozyst

At the end of 2010, Jean Castex became social affairs advisor to President Nicolas Sarkozy. His predecessor Raymond Soubie told the JDD that he had convinced him to take the post "for dessert", during a lunch at the Elysée.

This father of four then rose in rank in February 2011, becoming deputy secretary general of the Elysée. A function that Emmanuel Macron will later occupy, but this time under François Hollande.

At the time Macron collaborated with another assistant secretary general, Nicolas Revel, the same one who was chosen as chief of staff to ... Jean Castex.

The proximity with Nicolas Sarkozy remains. After his appointment, he called the former president, according to several media. But he returned his LR party card, which received a letter Friday morning asking him to "withdraw his membership".

"Politically, I am on the right and I assume it perfectly", underlined Jean Castex at the end of the 2000s.

Elected local

Jean Castex, 55, was mayor of Prades, a city of 6,000 inhabitants in the Pyrénées-Orientales, where he has been largely re-elected, with more than 75% of the vote.

Before the handover to Edouard Philippe, it was on the website of his commune that he reacted to his appointment by stressing "the experience acquired as mayor".

During the handover, Jean Castex insisted on his profile of local elected representative of the "South" and of the "rural world".

He is the author of a book on "the railway line from Perpignan to Villefranche-de-Conflent" and his publisher, Talaia Perpignan, says "passionate about history"

His grandfather Marc Castex was a senator from Gers and mayor of Vic-Fezensac.

Jean Castex has never been a parliamentarian or a minister.

JO-2024

Before being in charge of deconfinement, Jean Castex was the M. Olympics 2024 of the government, as interministerial delegate, a mission where many actors in the field welcome his action.

The Prime Minister is therefore described as a "Mister Sport", even if before taking up this Olympic post in 2007, he would have, according to Le Monde, entrusted to President Macron: "I warn you, I know nothing about sport".

The socialist president of the Seine-Saint-Denis departmental council, Stéphane Troussel, said Friday that he had "good personal relations" with Jean Castex on this issue of the Olympics, where 93 is on the front line: "Which is quite pleasant , it is its capacity to maintain good personal relations, to put the subjects on the table in all clarity ", said this elected PS on BFMTV.

M. Deconfinement

He had been appointed on April 6 to coordinate the national deconfinement strategy.

With his "task force" of 18 collaborators, he defended a cautious doctrine for emerging from the crisis and it was said to be very present in Matignon and very interventionist with the ministries.

During the handover, Jean Castex insisted with gravity "on the health crisis which is unfortunately not over. The economic and social crisis, it is already there", he also hammered.

© 2020 AFP