France: D-Day for the announcement of the government of Jean Castex

D-Day for the casting of Jean Castex. The Prime Minister is preparing to unveil, Monday, July 6, the composition of the new government, a key step in the attempt of Emmanuel Macron to revive the economy and his five-year term.

After a weekend of speculation, the executive hopes to have closed things "for Monday in the day", announced to 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".

>> To read: Jean Castex, "Monsieur déconfinement", appointed new Prime Minister

In total, the new team should count, according to the Elysee, "twenty ministers and deputy ministers". Edouard Philippe's former team consisted of 16 ministers, three deputy ministers and 17 secretaries of state.

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 .

A "mission and rallying government"

If some current ministers, like that of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer were seen at the Élysée Palace, the entourage of the Head of State assured that there would be "new talents" and "personalities from 'different horizons'.

And Emmanuel Macron recalled in tweets, Sunday, the lines of the last part of his quinquennium that a "mission and rallying government" will have to implement: "revival of the economy, continuation of the refoundation of our protection social and environmental, re-establishment of a just republican order "or" defense of European sovereignty ".

The project that I carried out in 2017 and on which the French elected me remains at the heart of my policy. But it must adapt to international upheavals and the crises we are experiencing: a new path must be drawn.

Priorities that he should detail during a new intervention, probably televised according to those around him, 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.

Surprise visit to a police station in La Courneuve

But Sunday evening, the former deputy secretary general of the Elysee Palace under Nicolas Sarkozy set the tone of his priorities, by paying a surprise visit to the police in La Courneuve, in Seine-Saint-Denis. He insisted on assuring them of the government's "flawless" support for the police and its attachment to "public security", in the midst of a controversy over police violence.

This evening I am at the La Courneuve police station, in contact with those who are committed to protecting our fellow citizens. I know they expect action from us. They will come. They also expect recognition and support, they will be flawless. pic.twitter.com/mWrGSutdRs

The day before, the former "Mister deconfinement" had reserved his first official outing for a high-tech company to highlight the "two challenges" to which he intends to respond: "the health crisis" and "the reconstruction of our economy and the protection of French "with" a relocation, a sustainable maintenance of industrial jobs and exposed to international competition "in France.

>> To read: Jean Castex, Prime Minister: a new start for the Climate Convention?

Jean Castex also says he wants "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 the 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.

With AFP

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