"If the President of the Republic offered me to be Prime Minister, I would refuse (...) I will clearly refuse," said Gérard Larcher (LR), guest of the Grand Jury RTL / Le Figaro / LCI.

"Being prime minister stems from a project that we share, a contract that we have made and therefore it is only possible before or after an election," he explained.

Speculation had flourished at the end of April, after statements deemed ambiguous: Gérard Larcher had then made it known that "today" he would not say yes to Matignon.

Asked about the postponement to the autumn of the immigration bill, the president of the Senate said that the migration issue is "one of the great failures of the six years of Emmanuel Macron", pleading for an ambitious text, then why not "in a second time" a referendum.

Regarding the recent remarks of Gérald Darmanin who accused the head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni of being "unable to solve the migratory problems" of her country, the president of the Senate deemed this "exit not useful".

"We still need to be able to give lessons, in terms of migration, I am not sure that we are exemplary."

© 2023 AFP