Who is Elisabeth Borne the new Prime Minister of France?

Elisabeth Borne dedicated her appointment as prime minister to “all the little girls” in France, whom she told “to make their way to the end”. What is normal in many European countries still continues to attract attention in France: The Minister of Labor in Macron’s government is the second woman to be appointed Prime Minister of the country. Thirty years ago, it was Edith Cresson who took over the post, when Francois Mitterand was president, and now speaking to Sunday’s Journal de Dimanche, she said bitterly about her experience: “It is a masculine country, it is a political class.”

Why Elisabeth Borne?

The France of the 1990s is not comparable to the France of Emmanuel Macron, who during the election campaign announced that he definitely wants a woman to take the post of Prime Minister. Elisabeth Borne will no longer need to confront the resistance and lack of respect of that time. But why did the president need a record time of three weeks to finally appoint the prime minister? Nearly a dozen other names circulated during this time, starting with the head of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, the Minister of Environment, the Deputy Speaker of the General Assembly and a number of other politicians.

In the end Macron decided to appoint a woman who is considered a technocrat, who has a lot of experience with the government apparatus and who is so charismatic and communicative that he does not steal the show from the president, as Ruth Elkrief Doyenne ironically told LCI television. among French television commentators for taking the post from Borne.

Who is Elisabeth Borne?

Elisabeth Borne studied engineering and rose to the position of strategic chief of the SNFC railways, being the first woman to take up the post. She then worked in the Ministry of Environment for the unsuccessful candidate for president of the Socialists,

Ségolène Royal, and succeeded him as prefect of the Poitou Charentes region. In 2017 she became Minister of Transport, Environment and finally Minister of Labor in the cabinet of Emmanuel Macron.

She is regarded as the lady to close matters, as serious and focused on details, attributes that will come into play in the new post. Because in France, the president is responsible for big plans and big speeches, the prime minister must implement his policy and manage the crises created by it. And given the amount of conflict and France’s reform plans, it has difficult years ahead.

Is the prime minister left or right, or is she just a macronaut?

Elisabeth Borne is seen as part of the moderate left, ie the former socialists, which has been decisive for her appointment. Her appointment is a matter of electoral tactics, because in the parliamentary elections expected to be held in June, Emmanuel Macron sees danger from a united left around Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with the participation of part of the Greens and former socialists. and driven by his far-left ideology.

But Mélenchon reacts to the appointment of the new prime minister in an unusually aggressive way: “A new season of social and ecological abuses is beginning. Elisabeth Borne represents the political continuity of the president. “She is one of the strongest figures in Macron’s social abuses.”

Do Bornes’s opponents consider her work as Minister of Transportation and the privatization of the SNFC Railway or the application of the vocational education system to young people during her time as Minister of Labor? It is strange that similar tones come from the far right: “By appointing Elisabeth Borne as prime minister, Emmanuel Macron shows his inability to unite (the country) and that he will continue with his disrespectful policy of destroying the state. , social devastation, fiscal pressure and neglect. ”

Marine Le Pen, as an unsuccessful candidate for president of the far right, seems to see the new prime minister with the same hatred as she sees her rival from the far left. The tone in French politics is also harsh.

Difficult tasks and crises that are approaching

The first activity for Elisabeth Borne will be about compensations for purchasing power given the rising prices in France. This includes covering gas and electricity bills as well as extending gasoline tax cuts. Emmanuel Macron has promised this aid during the election campaign and the benefits from the charities will be beneficial in the coming weeks, until the June parliamentary elections.

But behind them the political climb will be difficult. Among the main tasks of Elisabeth Borne is the ecological reconstruction of France. It on the one hand costs a lot of money, which is difficult to finance due to the massive increase in debts and on the other hand requires the French to sacrifice, which could lead to new waves of protests. Exactly the ecological additions to the gasoline taxation led in 2018 to the Yellow Jackets protests. The Prime Minister will be working on the determination, which they say she has, to bring changes in environmental protection.

But its most difficult task will be pension reform. Even if in the rest of Europe the reported increase in the retirement age to 65 seems like an absurd film, in Germany for example it has been years since the retirement age was raised to 67, in France strikes and clashes are planned in way if the draft pension bill is put on the agenda.

But in the second period of Macron’s rule, there are more other social issues accompanied by conflict: The recent elections with deep victories of the extreme left on the one hand and the extreme right on the other show deep divisions of country.

The rural population feels neglected by the culture and discussion that takes place in the cities and in the most expensive social state of Europe, many French people have a deep sense of social injustice. The president has promised government to all the French. But it is the new prime minister who must take care in the mud of the daily that his reforms are implemented and that the country is not further divided./ DW

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