Cazeneuve, who is considered more moderate than the candidate Lucie Castets, proposed by the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP) and rejected by Macron, had his entourage explain that he was “not a supplicant”. If he were to take up the office of Prime Minister, he would do so “out of a sense of duty” and “to spare the country further difficulties”, they said. Cazeneuve had already held the office of Prime Minister – from the end of 2016 to May 2017 – and before that he was Minister of the Interior.
Bertrand failed in the conservative Republican primary before the 2022 presidential election and has been regional president in the northern French region of Hauts-de-France since 2016. Conservative ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy described him as a suitable candidate for the office of head of government in an interview with the newspaper “Le Figaro” published on Friday.
However, within the conservative Republican party leadership, prominent representatives such as parliamentary group leader Laurent Wauquiez are speaking out against any participation of their party in a new government – with the aim of contesting the 2027 presidential election campaign from the opposition.
The left-wing alliance NFP emerged as the strongest force in the parliamentary elections in July, ahead of Macron’s camp and the right-wing populist Rassemblement National (RN). None of the three camps has a viable majority in the National Assembly.
Macron then left the current government under Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in office as caretaker president, with a view to the Olympic Games in Paris, which lasted until August 11. Now time is running out, as France has to present a draft budget for 2025 by October.
Traditionally, after a parliamentary election, the largest camp in the National Assembly proposes a candidate for the office of Prime Minister. The President can appoint whomever he wants, but is dependent on the Prime Minister getting a majority in the National Assembly for the government’s legislative proposals.
