French President Emmanuel Macron appointed Elisabeth Borne as France’s new Prime Minister on May 16. She is only the second woman to hold the position, and the first to head the French government since 1992. Borne succeeds Jean Castex, whose resignation paved the way for a cabinet overhaul after Macron’s re-election last month.
The expectations are high from Elisabeth Borne, especially she is likely to make a greater impact than France’s first female Prime Minister, Edith Cresson, who lasted less than a year under President Francois Mitterrand and quit amid a corruption scandal. At the transition of power ceremony, Castex was present and while welcoming the new Prime Minister with a smile, she cautioned that her job is difficult as in France Prime Minister needs to work out all implementation plans on behalf of an ever-present president and the post of Prime Minister is not exempted from public exposure and criticism. Castex reminded Borne “Madame la Premiere Ministre” the French often refer to the as the Prime Minister’s job as “job from hell.”
Macron’s high expectations
One of the reasons Macron appointed Borne to the post hoping Borne’s profile could help him appeal to radical-left voters who backed Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round of the presidential election in April, while avoiding alienating supporters right-wing supporters of Marine Le Pen. She was expected to steer Macron’s centrist grouping in the upcoming parliamentary election.
Despite being historically close to the Socialist Party, Borne proved her loyalty to the President during his first term when she served as transport, environment and finally, Labor Minister from 2020. She is accredited to have succeeded in lowering unemployment as in-charge of the ministry to its lowest level in 15 years and youth unemployment to its lowest level in 40 years.
Those negotiating skills could come in handy when she’ll be charged with pushing through Macron’s unpopular plans to raise the pension age from 62 to 65. Macron had hoped to do this in his first term, but had to delay his plans amid widespread strikes and public protests, and then later as the COVID pandemic turned the last years of his first term into more of a damage limitation exercise. Macron also promised that the new Prime Minister would be directly in charge of “green planning,” seeking to accelerate France’s implementation of climate-related policies.
Criticism of Elisabeth Borne
Leftwing radical leader Melenchon attacked her record as Labor Minister, as she oversaw negotiations with unions that resulted in a cut to unemployment benefits for some job seekers and reduced monthly payments for some unemployed people. He was quick to dismiss Borne’s appointment, referring to her as “my predecessor,” indicating a belief the he would be able to usurp the position as Prime Minister following parliamentary elections in the summer. He reminded that it was Born who led the negotiations to reduce the allowances for 1 million unemployed people, abolition of regulated gas prices, postponement of the end of nuclear power by 10 years, opening up to competition of [publicly-owned rail companies] SNCF and RATP and favoured retirement at 65. Under her Prime Ministerial role he said we could look forward for a new season of social abuse.” Melenchon described her main achievements in politics was to implement anti-labour policies.