LREM deputy leader Gilles Le Gendre announces Thursday that he will step down in September, deeming that "a change of president is necessary to inject (a) new impetus", in a letter to his colleagues that AFP was able to consult.
Castaner or Rugy to take over the reins?
Given the "new path" traced by Emmanuel Macron, "a handover is needed, which will bring new blood to the head of our group", writes the Paris deputy to the 280 "walkers". He had succeeded in September 2018 to Richard Ferrand who became president of the National Assembly, and had been re-elected as the head of the majority group in July 2019. The names of the former Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner or the former Minister for the Ecological Transition François de Rugy have been cited in recent times to take over the reins.
"I informed the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the President of the National Assembly that my mandate will end during our parliamentary days of September 10 and 11, during which we will elect my or my successor," said Gilles Le Gendre, specifying: "This decision, I take it with complete freedom" and "no one imposes it on me". "He is very attached to the life of this group and will end the summer session", told AFP his entourage, stressing that "there is no reason to create a rush".
Weakened by a "note" released in early June
Gilles Le Gendre had been weakened at the beginning of June after the leak in the press of a "note" to Emmanuel Macron on a cabinet reshuffle, where he seemed to plead for a change of Prime Minister - then Edouard Philippe - and proposed a new government casting. But he had defended himself before his troops and had escaped a sanction from his peers.
The departures of LREM group elected officials, until the formation in May of a 9th and then a 10th political group at the Palais Bourbon, causing LREM to lose an absolute majority, had also weakened it . Gilles Le Gendre announces that he will leave his post at the start of the school year after a large vote of confidence in the new head of government, Jean Castex (345 votes in favor, 177 against, 43 abstentions), without LREM defection except Olivier Serva (Guadeloupe) ) who abstained.