French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe presented this Friday the government’s en bloc resignation, which opens the way to a remodeling that President Emmanuel Macron prepares for the last two years of his mandate, with a view to the presidential elections of 2022.
During a meeting on Thursday, “the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister agreed on the need to form a new government to embody a new stage of the five-year period, a new direction,” announced the French presidency.
The outgoing government will be in charge of managing current affairs until the appointment of the new cabinet.
From the hard setback suffered by the government party in the municipal elections on Sunday, marked by the advance of environmentalists, an imminent change of government was expected.
The new government will have to “launch the new phase of the five-year period, a project for social, economic, environmental and local reconstruction”, said the Elysium.
Regarding the former prime minister,Eduard Philippe, whose popularity skyrocketed for his management of the coronavirus pandemic, was elected Sunday mayor of the port city of Le Havre, its electoral fief.
His replacement will be Jean Castex, a 55-year-old conservative, close to former President Nicolas Sarkozy (2007-2012), who is mayor of Prades, a small town in southwestern France, and was commissioned in April to deconfine the strategy.
The composition of the new government could be known before Wednesday, a source close to the presidency told AFP.
Economic crisis “very difficult”
The French executive has gone through a difficult period, with the unprecedented mobilization of the “yellow vests”, the strike against the retirement reform and the discontent of health personnel.
Added to this are the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, which in addition to having already left nearly 30,000 dead in the country, had a devastating impact on the French economy.
The Bank of France estimated in June that unemployment will reach 10% at the end of 2020, and 11.5% in the middle of next year, a level “above historical precedents” of economic recessions.
In an interview with the regional press published on Thursday night, Macron warned that France must prepare for a “very difficult” economic crisis.
The president may also want to green his government, taking into account the rise of environmentalists, who conquered the mayorships of several of the country’s main cities.
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