(Adnkronos) – French President Emmanuel Macron has started, as early as last week, to evaluate political profiles potentially suitable to succeed Michel Barnier, whose government could be ousted as early as tomorrow. Bfmtv writes this, citing several sources, specifying that Macron – currently on a visit to Saudi Arabia – has also organized appointments and telephone conversations with various interlocutors and would be – according to ‘Le Monde’ – considering some names in particular. The president also consulted several people close to him to decide when to appoint his new head of government, and many of them would have recommended an appointment as soon as possible, the broadcaster writes.
Macron, Le Monde reconstructs today, was on a flight to Riyadh when Barnier called him yesterday late morning to inform him of his intention to commit the government’s responsibility on the draft law financing social security, resorting to the article of the Constitution (49.3) which allows the adopted project to be considered, subject to a motion of no confidence. A motion that will be submitted to the deputies tomorrow, the day Macron returns from Saudi Arabia. (continues)
According to the newspaper, the president would now be tempted to appoint Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu to Matignon. A former parliamentary assistant to Bruno Le Maire, Lecornu has the particularity – within the presidential camp – of being well regarded by the elected members of the Rassemblement National, and to speak with the party leaders he is also willing to take risks, so much so that he participated in a secret dinner at the home of his friend Thierry Solère, before the European elections, with Marine Le Pen, Liberation revealed in July.
But this appointment could prove indigestible to a part of the Macronist camp because it would give the executive an even more favorable orientation towards Rn. And it could be seen as the president’s attempt to get his hands back on domestic politics, placing one of his loyalists in Matignon, after losing the legislature.
Another ‘strategic’ option, explains Le Monde, would be the president of the MoDem, François Bayrou, who secured the benevolence of Marine Le Pen with his harsh judgments on the prosecution’s indictment in the trial of the parliamentary assistants of the MEPs of the Front National (former Rn) and could also find support among the benches of the socialist deputies. However, the latter would have no chance of seeing one of their own land in Matignon, after having contributed to the fall of its last tenant, it is believed at the Elysée.
