The composition of a new French government was announced on Monday evening, following the appointment on Friday of a largely unknown senior civil servant and longstanding conservative, Jean Castex, as France’s new prime minister. He replaced Édouard Philippe, who served in the post since Emmanuel Macron’s election in 2017. Mediapart political correspondent Ellen Salvi dresses here a portrait of the new prime minister, and chronicles the tensions that led to the departure of Philippe.
After serving three years in office, beginning with the election of President Emmanuel Macron, and days after his re-election as mayor in his political fiefdom of Le Havre, France's prime minister Édouard Philippe has been replaced by Jean Castex, 55, a high-ranking civil servant and conservative, largely unknown to the public, and who will lead a reshuffled government on what the Élysée Palace announced would be a 'new path'.
French President Emmanuel Macron has appointed Edouard Philippe, until now the conservative mayor of Le Havre and MP, as his prime minister in a move regarded as an attempt to attract a slice of the conservative electorate in parliamentary elmections in June.
Formerly interior minister, Cazeneuve, 53, takes over as prime minister from Manuel Valls who on Monday resigned in order to launch his bid to become socialist candidate in presidential elections next spring.
Pierre Mauroy, who has died aged 84 after battling lung cancer, became in 1981 the first socialist prime minister under France's Fifth Republic. For many the man with working class roots from the north of the country epitomised both a deeply-felt and a pragmatic form of socialism. Mediapart's Antoine Perraud assesses the life of a politician who oversaw radical reforms in one of the most eventful periods of modern French politics.
