Macron Taps Jean Castex to Be France’s New Prime Minister in Reshuffle

(Bloomberg) -- Emmanuel Macron made an unexpected choice to inject momentum into his presidency: Tapping a conservative and former aide of ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, Jean Castex.

After a disastrous showing in June municipal elections, the French president picked a fresh face in the political scene and pushed aside a potential rival, Edouard Philippe, who is popular among voters.

Macron opted for a largely unknown bureaucrat when he removed Philippe, who had on some issues started to overshadow him and could have a half eye on the 2022 presidential elections.

Castex is associated with the Republican party, as opposed to Macron’s centrist leanings, and he coordinated France’s reopening after the coronavirus pandemic forced a lockdown.

This is the first announcement of what promises to be an overhaul of Macron’s cabinet as the French president seeks to reinvent himself in time for re-election.

“I am seeking results with the recovery plan we are preparing,” Castex said in a French television interview after his appointment. He said he’ll lay out his policy program next week with a focus on “investing in sectors of the future such as ecology,” embracing Macron’s pledges to support the economy amid a rough patch.

Public Grievances

Macron underestimated the impact of the Yellow Vests, which morphed from a grassroots movement opposed to higher fuel taxes into a nationwide phenomenon that at its peak turned violent. The protesters never went away, while the list of grievances grew longer.

The protesters now join unions in opposing an overhaul to a pension system made all the more unaffordable by an economy in recession. There is unhappiness with his uneven handling of a pandemic that has caused nearly 30,000 French deaths. His Republic on the Move party was broadly rejected in a June 28 municipal ballot that saw the Green Party gain strongholds throughout the country.

Since early June, Castex, who’s also the mayor of Prades, a small town in Southern France famous for its cello festival, is back at handling preparations for the 2024 Olympic Games, overseeing a complex coordination with the Paris and national authorities as well as public transportation companies and private sponsors.

Castex, 55, was an adviser to former president Sarkozy, whose name is a turnoff for many on the left. The new prime minister, who is known to be politically flexible, immediately called Macron’s predecessor after his appointment, Le Monde reported.

‘New Team’

Macron has been walking a fine line between promises to overhaul his policies while also standing by commitments to make the nation more friendly to international investors. So far, he’s pledged that his government would invest an extra 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion) over the next two years to facilitate the economy’s environmental transition.

Macron said in an interview with regional French newspapers on Thursday that the country needed to follow a “new path” based around the economic, social and environmental reconstruction of the country. He added that this would be accompanied by a “new team” in government.

It could take days to appoint all the other governmental posts.

Philippe, whose popularity has risen during the coronavirus crisis, has been eyed as a possible contender in the next presidential election. In an Elabe poll published this month, 57% of respondents said Philippe should remain in his post as prime minister.

“The president’s decision to replace the popular Edouard Philippe with the little known center-right politician Jean Castex as prime minister suggests that Macron wants to be perceived as entirely in control of government policy in the months leading up to the 2022 presidential election,” Antonio Barroso, deputy director of research at Teneo Intelligence in London, wrote in a note.

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