New Prime Minister: Emmanuel Macron to receive Bernard Cazeneuve, François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy this Monday

Emmanuel Macron recevra ce lundi 2 septembre à l'Elysée Bernard Cazeneuve, François Hollande et Nicolas Sarkozy. Photos maxppp

Former Socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve will be received by Emmanuel Macron on Monday morning to discuss the conditions for an appointment to Matignon, nearly two months after legislative elections that resulted in a National Assembly without a majority.

The announcement of this meeting consolidates Bernard Cazeneuve's status as favorite and demonstrates an acceleration of the consultations conducted by Emmanuel Macron after 55 days of political crisis.

While his name has been circulating insistently during the week as a possible Prime Minister, “Bernard Cazeneuve is not asking for it, but if he does it is out of duty and to avoid additional difficulties for the country”, explained his entourage, who announced this meeting.

Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande also received

Emmanuel Macron's entourage specified that this meeting was part of the continuation of the consultations of the president who should also speak with his predecessors Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande.

The former Minister of the Interior, at the time of the November 2015 attacks, and Prime Minister during the last months of François Hollande's five-year term “is a responsible man of the left who will take into account the political but also economic situation of the country”, added those close to him.

Emmanuel Macron is looking for a Prime Minister who will not be the subject of immediate censure by the political forces in the National Assembly.

It is for this reason that he rejected the nomination of Lucie Castets, presented by the parties of the New Popular Front (LFI-PS-Ecologistes-PCF), a left-wing alliance that came out on top in the last legislative elections.

Although he is center-left, the 61-year-old former socialist left the PS in 2022, opposed to the alliance with LFI within the Nupes, and has a less divisive profile for macronie, the right and the extreme right.

What to expect for this meeting ?

This meeting on Monday at the Elysée Palace de facto removes the hypothesis of a “right-wing Prime Minister” advocated by former President Nicolas Sarkozy. But the leaders of the Republicans, who want to come as opponents to the 2027 presidential election, refuse any coalition or participation in the future government.

It is still necessary for Emmanuel Macron and Bernard Cazeneuve to agree on the terms of their possible “cohabitation”.

According to his entourage, Bernard Cazeneuve will seek to ensure that the “conditions for normal, regular, transparent institutional functioning” are “reunited”, not ruling out refusing an appointment to Matignon if this is not the case. The unpopular reform on retirement at 64 is one of the sensitive subjects that will be discussed during this interview.

Time is running out for a new government because the 2025 State budget must be submitted to Parliament by October 1 at the latest. “No government will be able to exempt itself from continuing efforts to reduce the deficit,” judged the resigning Minister of Public Accounts Thomas Cazenave in Le Parisien Dimanche.

Before October 1, Parliament could be convened in extraordinary session to listen to the general policy speech of a new Prime Minister.