Paris (AFP)
France is preparing to discover its new government on Monday, concocted during the weekend by Emmanuel Macron and the newly appointed Prime Minister Jean Castex to boost the economy and the quinquennium.
After intense speculation, the executive hopes to have closed things "for Monday in the day," announced AFP the Elysee. "The government will be appointed tomorrow," confirmed Jean Castex on Sunday evening after having dinner with the head of state, stressing that the Minister of the Interior would be appointed "on (s) a proposal".
Emmanuel Macron recalled in Sunday tweets the main lines of the last part of his five-year term that a "mission and rallying government" will have to implement: "reviving the economy, continuing to overhaul our social protection and the environment, re-establishment of a just republican order "or" defense of European sovereignty ".
Decided to accelerate the pace to make forget the debacle of the municipal and to tackle the post-coronavirus crises, the new executive couple should first announce the ministers, according to a close to the president, then the secretaries of state a few days later .
If some current ministers, like that of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer were seen at the Elysée Palace, the entourage of the Head of State assured that there would be "new talents" and "personalities from 'different horizons'.
- Macron's intervention on July 14 -
Mr. Macron should set the course for this team during a new intervention, probably televised according to his entourage, on the national holiday of July 14, reviving a presidential tradition that he had suppressed.
The Prime Minister, who had planned his declaration of general policy before the Assembly mid-week, will have to wait for the presidential speech to present his program "a few days later", according to the entourage of Emmanuel Macron.
But Sunday evening, the former deputy secretary general of the Elysée under Nicolas Sarkozy set the tone of his priorities, by paying a surprise visit to police officers from La Courneuve in Seine-Saint-Denis. He wanted to assure the police of "unfailing" support from the government and his commitment to "public security", in the midst of a controversy over police violence.
On Monday, Mr. Castex will continue to assume his duties by going to meet the presidents of assemblies, first in the Senate (2:30 p.m.), then in the National Assembly and the Economic, Social and Environmental Council.
- The "not priority" retirement file -
This weekend, Mr. Castex also said he wanted "at least a new social agenda" and settle "in the short term" the explosive pension issue.
Response from Philippe Martinez, the boss of the CGT, on LCI on Sunday: "All the unions agree today that pension reform is not a priority subject" in the face of unemployment which is coming.
As for the Ségur de la Santé, suspended at the end of last week for lack of agreement with the unions before the reshuffle, the Prime Minister wishes to conclude it "next week", when an envelope of seven billion euros is on the table for caregiver salaries.
The opposition denounces it the will of the president to make new with old, like the MEP EELV Yannick Jadot who, fort of the green breakthrough in the municipal ones, sees himself competing with Emmanuel Macron for the presidential of 2022. He denounces "perfect continuity between Jean Castex and Edouard Philippe" who, according to him, "have never shown any interest in the climate or biodiversity".
"The time has come to make a frank choice" on ecology, exhorted Sunday the former Minister of Ecology Nicolas Hulot, who had slammed the door of the government in 2018.
The Socialist Party and The Republicans also castigate attempts to "poach", like the patroness of socialist deputies Valérie Rabault, who claims to have been contacted.
© 2020 AFP