France's second female PM Elisabeth Borne resigns amid tensions
"Your work in the nation's service has been exemplary each day. You have carried out our project with courage, commitment, and determination. From the bottom of my heart, thank you," Macron wrote on platform X on Monday, thanking Borne for her work.
8:24 AM EST, January 9, 2024
As commentators suggest, Macron's decision to change the prime minister may be an attempt to give new impetus to his second term ahead of the June elections to the European Parliament and the Summer Olympics in Paris.
Borne, who took office in May 2022, was the second female Prime Minister in the history of France. She will serve until a new government is appointed. Her successor is yet to be named.
Borne’s difficult reforms
Within her 20-month tenure, Borne undertook an unpopular pension reform and a controversial immigration law enacted in December. This legislation, backed by far-right groups, caused a divide in Macron’s political camp.
Without a majority in parliament, Prime Minister Borne decided to pass many laws, including the budget law through Article 49.3 of the French constitution. This Article allows the government to pass laws without proceeding through the parliamentary process, which sparked opposition.
Borne met with President Macron at the Elysee Palace on Monday afternoon. Unofficial information suggests her successor might be 34-year-old Education Minister Gabriel Attal.
Possible successors to Borne
Attal has served as the Minister of National Education since July 2023, previously as the Minister of Public Accounts. He is a former member of the Socialist Party, and during Macron's first term (2017-2022), he served as the Secretary of State for Youth (2018–2020) and later as a government spokesman (2020–2022). If Attal took the position, he would be the youngest politician and the first openly homosexual person to serve as head of government in the French Republic.
Media speculation suggests other potential candidates for the head of government include Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu and former Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie.
A deadlock in cooperation with parliament characterizes the second term of President Macron. In polling for the European Parliament elections set for June next year, the far-right National Rally (NR) leads.
"The Prime Minister will be Emmanuel Macron," joked MEP Raphael Glucksmann on France 2 TV channel, discussing the governmental changes and describing them as a "drift towards personal power."
