PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday tapped a senior but low-profile bureaucrat as prime minister to replace Edouard Philippe, the first move in a widely expected cabinet reshuffle after dismal local election showings for the ruling party.
The new premier, Jean Castex, was drawn from the right-wing opposition to Macron’s centrist party, and was totally unknown to most in France until now.
But Castex, a former top aide to ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, has been in charge of the country’s progressive emergence from the coronavirus lockdown, a policy greeted as a relative success by experts.
“Let’s be clear: I’m not here to seek the limelight. I’m here to get results,” Castex said in what was effectively his introduction to the general public during a prime-time interview on TF1.
He said he would present his political road map next week, and a wider cabinet overhaul is expected in the coming days.
Macron has promised a “new course” for France to deal with the crisis, which has plunged France into its worst recession since World War II and left millions of people facing unemployment.
The former investment banker, who swept to power in 2017 on pledges to radically reform France, already has a wary eye on his 2022 re-election bid after months of protests and strikes that preceded the coronavirus outbreak./AFP
