Macron relieves his prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, after the crisis over the immigration law

Emmanuel Macron wanted to turn the page after a difficult year due to the agonizing pension reform, riots in the suburbs and an immigration reform applauded by the extreme right. This Monday, the French president relieved his prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, in office from 2022. On Tuesday morning she should announce the name of her successor.

Borne's resignation comes at the beginning of a politically compromised year. For the European elections, Macron's first test at the polls after the last presidential elections. And for the Paris Olympic Games, a test for France on a global scale.

According to the BFM-TV news channel and other media, the favorite to succeed Borne is the current Minister of Education, Gabriel Attal, a rising star of the Government. But there is no official confirmation. At 34 years old, Attal would be the youngest prime minister of the Fifth Republic, the current constitutional regime, founded in 1958. The previous youngest was Laurent Fabius, appointed when he was 37 years old by the socialist François Mitterrand in 1984.

“This day, Mrs. Élisabeth Borne presented the resignation of the Government to the President of the Republic, who accepted it,” says a statement from the Elysee Palace. “She ensures, together with the members of the Government, the management of current affairs until the appointment of a new Government.”

Borne, a technocrat attached to the social democratic wing of the Government, was appointed after Macron's re-election to the presidency of the Republic a year and a half ago. Her successor will be the French president's fourth prime minister since he came to power in 2017. The others were the conservatives Édouard Philippe and Jean Castex.

Rumor dance

In recent days, several names have circulated to succeed Borne, a dance of rumors and intoxications at the top of political and media power worthy of the Court of Versailles. Among other candidates, the Minister of the Armies, Sébastien Lecornu, the former Minister of Agriculture, Julien Denormandie, and the powerful Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, have been mentioned. The head of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, coveted the position, but came out scorched by the immigration law.

On Monday afternoon, television commentators put Attal's name on the table. If this forecast comes true, an experienced senior civil servant, 62 years old, with extensive experience in the Administration and in socialist ministerial cabinets, will have left. And she would replace him with a 34-year-old politician, popular in the polls, a loyal Macronist and with unlimited ambition.

In France, the prime minister is considered a fuse for the president. When he, immovable in office, has problems, the head of government jumps out of him. The change of prime minister will surely lead to a change in the ministries in the coming days.

In a message on the social network “You have launched our project with the courage, commitment and determination of women of state.”

Borne was the second female prime minister in French history. The previous one, the socialist Édith Cresson, only lasted 10 months in office. Her, double. In a letter, Borne vindicated her reformist legacy in Matignon, the seat of the Government. And she made it clear that, if she resigned, it was in spite of herself. Her advantage, for Macron, was a detailed knowledge of the workings of the Administration and its socialist origin that allowed the president to maintain progressive credentials in a Government dominated by right-wing figures. Her disadvantage is that she was more technocratic than political, she felt uncomfortable in verbal fencing and lacked the Macronist faith—and connection with the leader—of other collaborators and ministers.

Crises have accumulated for Macron and Borne in the last year. First was the unpopular pension reform, with more than four months of demonstrations in the streets and a majority of French people against it. Then, the riots in the suburbs at the beginning of summer. And in December, the dramatic adoption of immigration reform, agreed with the right and with votes in favor of the extreme right.

The immigration law upset the social democratic sector of the Government. And it caused the resignation of the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, and the vote against or the abstention of dozens of Macronists in the National Assembly. Macron has shown, since he came to power, that he is “neither left nor right” (or “both left and right”), but with this law he has taken on repressive measures that the right had been demanding for years.

Prime Minister Borne's problem was that she lacked a majority in the National Assembly. For this reason, she ended up using the disputed article 49.3 of the Constitution 23 times, which allows the adoption of a law by circumventing the parliamentary vote. Or making an agreement with the right and breaking the balance between left and right: the end of the famous “at the same time”, the Macronist government philosophy, which in its origin was a pragmatic and transversal liberalism.

The question is whether the prime minister's successor will be able to continue governing in a minority and by decree. Or if he will end up stumbling like her. The first test will be the Europeans, in which Marine Le Pen's National Regroupment starts as favorites.

Follow all the international information on Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter.

_