DECRYPTION
Awaited for several days, the reshuffle finally took place on Friday. Edouard Philippe thus left his place to Matignon to Jean Castex, a politician very little known to the general public. Jean Castex, 55, from the Gers, is a senior civil servant. He gradually came into the limelight during the Covid-19 crisis, since he was the "deconfinement gentleman" of the government, appointed on the proposal of Edouard Philippe. According to the Elysee Palace, his mission is "successful" and it is also there that he approached the president. At the Elysee Palace, he is said to be the man of the "social Gaullist right" and that his appointment is the choice of "efficiency and conviction", according to a close friend of Emmanuel Macron.
LIVE - Édouard Philippe wishes Jean Castex "much success"
An enarch who knows the mysteries of power perfectly
Concretely, Jean Castex ticks a lot of boxes above all. He is the discreet mayor of Prades, in the Pyrénées-Orientales. "He has the good intuitions of the local elected representative," confided a minister recently. Above all, Jean Castex is an enarch who knows the mysteries of power perfectly. He was deputy secretary general of the Elysée under Nicolas Sarkozy, a strategic position in permanent contact with Matignon.
"He is someone very, very easy to contact," said a minister also. "He does not take himself seriously. He is close by. It is fluid," added an adviser. "He is a secretary general of the Elysée", summarizes our editorial writer Michèle Cotta at the microphone of Europe 1. Above all, he has the profile of the technician sought by Emmanuel Macron.
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An executive Prime Minister and technician
Because by choosing Jean Castex for the end of his five-year term, Emmanuel Macron wants to get back in front, in view of the campaign for the presidential election of 2022. He will thus work on some precise political objects and some reforms that he has outlined in the regional daily press on Friday morning: the Ségur for health, old age, young people, economic recovery and even ecology. For this, he needs a Prime Minister who is more efficient and more technical than political.
Macron's goal: the 2022 election
Emmanuel Macron will then be able to be a hyper-president in the countryside for almost two years. "We are going to enter a seven-year term," confided a relative of the president recently, proof that some imagine that this strategy will allow Emmanuel Macron to be re-elected in 2022.
"Jean Castex is there for Emmanuel Macron to take power", estimated our editorial writer Michaël Darmon, Friday, in Le Grand journal du Soir. "When we met Emmanuel Macron with a few colleagues a few days ago, he said that he would speak more and that he would put himself forward. The profile of 'performer from below' by Jean Castex will allow this ", he continued.
Some observers believed that it was the strong popularity of Edouard Philippe that led to his resignation, Emmanuel Macron being able to take umbrage. It is actually rather a question of political orientation.