When will Prime Minister Jean Castex bring his letter of resignation to the Head of State? Neither the Elysee nor Matignon gave any indication, while nothing constitutionally obliges him to leave his post before the start of the second five-year term.
This weekend, Jean Castex has one last trip on his agenda: to lead the French delegation for the canonization on Sunday in the Vatican of the explorer and then hermit Charles de Foucauld.
Therefore, the scenario of a departure at the beginning of next week seems to be taking shape. «The resignation will take place on Monday,» a majority official believes.
It remains to be seen whether his successor will be appointed in the process and in what timeframe the new government team will be formed.
In the meantime, Jean Castex said goodbye to the Matignon staff on Wednesday, then Thursday evening to the ministers, invited to a buffet in the gardens with their spouses.
“Never forget that we are only servants! Political action is collective action. Ambitions are legitimate but they are only worth if they are at the service of the collective,” he said, according to a participant. , to ministers who gave him a standing ovation and a rugby shirt.
The future head of government – a woman a priori, according to confidences of relatives of the president – should therefore be hard at work for a first Council of Ministers on Wednesday or the following days.
– A «techno» in Matignon? –
But, in absolute terms, anything is possible, especially since the Head of State always willingly poses as «master of the clocks» and suspense.
«It’s a custom, a republican tradition which wants the Prime Minister to present his resignation when a new president of the Republic is elected. He is not obliged to do so, but it is a republican tradition», explains to the AFP Dominique Rousseau, professor of constitutional law at the Panthéon-Sorbonne University.
In the event of re-election, he can do so the day after the election – this is the case when leaving a cohabitation – or at the start of the new mandate.
In theory, the Prime Minister can also expedite current affairs until the legislative elections of June 12 and 19.
He will then submit his resignation to the President the day after the election. «It is not a written rule, but it is the use which has always been respected since 1958», notes the constitutionalist, recalling the precedent of Georges Pompidou after the re-election of General de Gaulle in 1965.
Emmanuel Macron assured Monday in Berlin that he already knew who would be his next Prime Minister, endowed according to him with a «social», «ecological» and productive profile.
The Minister of Labor Elisabeth Borne, the Director General of Unesco Audrey Azoulay, the former Socialist Minister of Social Affairs Marisol Touraine …. Several names with a «techno» profile are circulating.
«The game is not over even if the techno hold the rope», assures a tenor of the majority, who pleads for a more political Prime Minister as the legislative elections approach.
Some are calling on the Head of State to delay no longer while the forces of the left, united behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon, are taking center stage at the start of the campaign.
“Appointing the Prime Minister later can help to have a small effect on the announcement of the new government”, estimates Benjamin Morel, lecturer in public law at the University of Paris 2.
«But you will not overturn the table» if the choice falls on «personalities that are not very prominent in public opinion», he warns.
During the week, Emmanuel Macron divided his time between preparing for the second five-year term and numerous calls with foreign leaders, who wanted to congratulate him on his re-election.
After a long exchange on Tuesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping, he notably spoke with the leaders of the African Union, his Ivorian counterpart Alassane Ouattara and Iraqi Prime Minister Moustafa Al-Kazimi. Without forgetting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, with whom he reaffirmed «the attachment to the close coordination that has prevailed since the start of the conflict in Ukraine between G7 partners».
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