• Profile.Jean Castex, the "Mr. mistrust" that Matignon has conquered

He has just been appointed Prime Minister of France but he does not want to waste a minute to get down to business. "I want to act fast," Jean Castex, 55 , announced in an interview with the Sunday newspaper 'Le Journal du Dimanche', in which he revealed what his government's priorities will be.

According to Castex, France faces two immediate challenges : the Covid-19 health crisis and the economic and social crisis caused by the coronavirus. Among his priorities will be economic recovery and the health of the French. "It is time to act," said the new prime minister, who defines the Castex style as "a mixture of voluntarism and experience with the desire to unite."

Ecology will also be at the center of the concerns of the new French prime minister: "Acting for the environment is not an option, it is an obligation," Castex said, a week after "the green wave" in the French municipal elections. Ecologists won in big cities like Lyon, Strasbourg and Bordeaux. The president, Emmanuel Macron, now wants to take an ecological turn in the two years that he has remained in office, with the aim of being re-elected in 2022.

Waiting for the name of the new ministers to be announced probably this Monday morning, the French press is betting on who is staying and who is leaving the cabinet and who will be the new signings.

According to an Ifop poll for 'Le Journal du Dimanche', 53% of French people are in favor of the permanence in the Government of Bruno Le Maire, acting minister of Economy and Finance, and 52% of Olivier Véran, that until now occupied the portfolio of Health. 44% want Jean-Michel Blanquer (Education) to remain in the Executive. If this poll is listened to, Nicole Belloubet (Justice), Muriel Pénicaud (Work) and Christophe Castaner (Interior) could have the hours numbered .

'Mister mistrust'

Castex, little known by the French before his appointment, has been in charge of implementing the government's plan for the de-escalation after the two-month confinement of the population due to the coronavirus pandemic. The French press called him "Mister mistrust".

Until his appointment on Friday as Prime Minister, he was mayor of Prades (Prada in Catalan), a town with 6,000 inhabitants in the Eastern Pyrenees, near the Spanish border. He had been re-elected mayor in March in the municipal first round with 75.7% of the votes.

The new Prime Minister knows Matignon well, where he attended meetings to prepare for the de-escalation, and the Elysee Palace. Castex worked there when he was deputy secretary general of the Elysee of former President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Castex, who speaks French with a southwestern French accent, revealed in 'Le Journal du Dimanche' that Macron called him on Thursday night to inform him that he was the one chosen to be prime minister.

The French have also been able to discover in this interview that he likes rugby and music and that he is a great reader of Patrick Modiano. As mayor of Prades he presided over the Pau Casals Classical Music Festival. The Catalan cellist took refuge in Prades, fleeing from Francoism.

Following his appointment as Prime Minister, Castex has left the Republican party to join the ranks of The Republic on the Move (LREM ), the party of President Macron. Caster considers it "natural" to integrate "unambiguously" the presidential majority now that he is its prime minister. His predecessor in the post, Édouard Philippe , who like Castex came from the right, was never a member of the President's party.

One comes, another leaves. Philippe was officially re-elected mayor of Le Havre on Sunday, after winning the second round of the municipal elections a week ago with 58% of the votes. The former prime minister leaves the front line of national politics and returns to local politics.

Philippe, who had been councilor of this Norman town from 2010 to 2017 before being appointed prime minister, returned to wear the mayor's tricolor band on Sunday. He received 47 of the 59 votes of the Municipal Council. His adversary, the communist Jean-Paul Lecoq, obtained 12 votes.

"To work!" Said Philippe, after being elected mayor, "the most beautiful of the mandates that the Republic can offer." "Philippe left Matignon on Friday to return to Le Havre, after three years at the helm of the French government.

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