France, the new government is underway: leave Castaner, Le Drian and Le Maire confirmed

2020-07-06T19:06:12.608Z

The new government team in France is ready. The secretary general of the Elysée, Alexis Kohler, has announced the names of the twenty ministers who will join the new premier Jean Castex and President Emmanuel Macron in the last two years of his term. Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire, Foreign Affairs Jean-Yves Le Drian and Health Olivier Véran confirmed, while Justice Éric Dupond-Morreti arrives at Justice and the ex-Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin goes home to replace the disputed Christophe Castaner. After the blow collected in the municipal elections, Macron wanted to give new impetus to the executive with the promise to give priority to the recovery of the economy after the crisis generated by the coronavirus. A few hours before the formalization of the names, the head of state promised that the new government would be of "purpose and unity". The 2017 agenda, Macron explained, remains central to his policy but "must adapt to the upheavals and international crises we are experiencing: we need to forge a new way". The turning point certainly came at place Beauvau, where the president replaced Castaner, targeted by protests against racial injustice and police brutality triggered by the killing of George Floyd in the United States. In response, Castaner initially announced a ban on the use of tightening around the neck in police activities, but then backed off from pressures from agent unions and started experimenting with extensive use of the taser. To replace it was called Darmanin, a former conservator who joined En Marche in 2017. Italian-French criminal lawyer Éric Dupond-Moretti arrives at Justice, known for defending WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, Abdelkader Merah brother of the terrorist Mohammed, and for having managed to obtain a large number of acquittals. Leading the Ministry for Ecological Transition will be ex Verde, Barbara Pompili. Instead, Jean-Michel Blanquer has been confirmed to Education, appreciated by President Macron for his secular vision. While Muriel Pénicaud gives way to the Ministry of Labor to Elisabeth Borne. At Culture there will be Roselyne Bachelot, whose appointment had been in the air for days. Bachelot is known for holding the post of health minister during the Sarkozy presidency and the outbreak of bird flu. His decisions to order large quantities of vaccines and masks, which were then wasted, to fight the epidemic, sparked controversy at the time but have now been re-evaluated in the country after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.