French PM resigns ahead of cabinet overhaul, Borne seen taking job

Paris, May 16 (BNA) French Prime Minister Jean Castex submitted his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, paving the way for a long-awaited ministerial reform and the likely appointment of the second woman in office in 30 years.

Macron – who was re-elected in April and needs to show he heard voter frustrations expressed in low turnout and massive support for the far-right and far-left – said he is looking for a prime minister with green and social policy credentials, Reuters reported.

His allies said he would likely appoint a woman, who would be the first since Edith Cresson briefly held the position during the presidency of Socialist leader Francois Mitterrand in the early 1990s.

The current Labor Secretary, Elizabeth Bourne, 61, is widely expected to get the job.

A soft-spoken career bureaucracy that served several Socialist Party ministers before joining Macron’s government, Bourne spent a brief stint as environment minister in 2019 — when she lobbied with bike-friendly policies.

Then she took over and supervised the Ministry of Labor negotiations with the unions that led to the reduction of unemployment benefits for some job seekers.

Such a profile could help counter the challenge posed by left-wing veteran Jean-Luc Mélenchon who came to a strong third in the presidential election, allowing him to mobilize a broad coalition of left-leaning parties in France in the 12-19 parliamentary elections. June. .

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