Home » News » Possible Replacement for Elisabeth Borne: Mayor of Angers Christophe Béchu Emerges as Top Candidate for Prime Minister in 2022

Possible Replacement for Elisabeth Borne: Mayor of Angers Christophe Béchu Emerges as Top Candidate for Prime Minister in 2022

Entering the government in May 2022, the mayor of Angers is on the list of possible first ministers in the event of the departure of Elisabeth Borne.

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Any rumor of a ministerial reshuffle carries its share of questions and rustling. In the corridors of this 2024 school year, the distant echo of a change of prime minister is vaguely heard. With this eternal equation of two unknowns which arises in these moments of doubt and waiting: “when” and “who”?

A wobbly majority

Before having clear answers and the start of a calendar, analysts inevitably look at the “why”, which is much clearer. Worn out by a very bitter parliamentary match in 2023, the current government seems to be in a strategic impasse. Several ministers showed their disagreement following the vote on the Immigration Law, reworked in a right-wing direction after its passage in the joint committee, and in the assembly, the presidential majority, already very fragile, was fractured (a quarter of the deputies of the Renaissance-Horizons-MoDem coalition did not approve the text).

The ability to bring people together, an objective that Elisabeth Born championed after the forceps adoption of the pension reform in March 2023, fizzled out. In this context of division, the prospect of the European election, scheduled for next June, stands like a wall for Emmanuel Macron and his troops. Unless we change the head of government in favor of a face capable of catching up with the majority and drawing new support from the right.

Does Christophe Béchu, current Minister of Ecological Transition, have the cards to confront this challenge? Long noted for his extreme discretion, despite a demanding portfolio that requires a lot of teaching, the mayor of Angers has gradually found his cruising speed, imposing a rounded and serious image, without missteps and little inclined to media outbursts. .

Béchu support of Edouard Philippe: a burden?

Béchu, 49, has several aces up his sleeve: he is first and foremost a politician, not a technocrat. Its electoral roots in Maine-et-Loire are deep. It was there that, just twenty years ago, he won the chair of president of the General Council, a mandate he held for a decade, before winning the town hall of Angers (2014). Never a member of parliament, this trained lawyer nevertheless has a parliamentary culture and experience: he served six years in the Senate between 2011 and 2017.

On the political spectrum, Christophe Béchu stands alongside the moderate right. Very close to former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, he was one of the “rebels” who had dissociated themselves from the candidacy of François Fillon during the 2017 presidential election. A trajectory which today would weigh rather against him, as the The hunt for votes promises to be complex on the right of the hemicycle, particularly within the LR ranks (62 elected officials) braced on the hard lines defended by Eric Ciotti (president of the party) and Olivier Marleix (president of the group).


2024-01-03 10:47:33
#Reshuffle #Angevin #Christophe #Béchu #Matignon #EntrepriseAngers.com

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