French President Emmanuel Macron has named Edouard Philippe, the 46-year-old Mayor of Le Havre, as his Prime Minister.
Philippe is a member of the center-right Les Républicains party and is close to Alaine Juppé, the former Prime Minister who endorsed Macron after he won the first round of the presidential election.
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The choice of Philippe — widely predicted by political pundits — indicates Macron’s desire to draw support from the conservative opposition and create balance, according to Emmanuelle Schön-Quinlivan, lecturer in European politics at University College, Cork.
Strong mandate is needed
“Macron needs to re-tilt the people around him to the right as at the moment the main people around him are from the left. He needs to give a sign towards Les Républicains. This will be a sign to their followers that this government is genuinely from the left and the right, ” she told CNN.
Macron, the youngest French president in history at 39, is counting on winning votes from center-right supporters in elections for the National Assembly next month. His party is scrambling to get 577 candidates together to contest every seat in the country.
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Although he won the May 7 election with 66% of the vote, many in France made it clear they were casting their votes against far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, rather than for Macron.
His party was only founded last year and has never held a single National Assembly. But Macron needs to win a majority in the June vote to have the mandate to push his legislative agenda through.
If he manages to achieve that, the Prime Minister’s role will be to see through the promised reforms to address unemployment in France and boost the ailing economy.
Not a high profile politician
Philippe, a lawyer with experience working in the private sector, was born in Rouen and grew up in a left-wing environment. He was a socialist in his younger days before switching his allegiances to Les Républicains.
A relatively youthful 46, he has only been an MP for one term, serving in the National Assembly representing the constituency of Seine-Maritime in Normandy, northern France, since 2012.
He has been Mayor of Le Havre, a port city in northern France since 2010.
In an interview with CNN affiliate BFMTV earlier this month, days before the presidential election, Macron said he had several people in mind for Prime Minister. He admitted that he was “hesitating” in making a choice between a man and a woman.
Among the women whose names were speculated on was International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde.
Speculation over female candidates
France has only ever had one female PM, Edith Cresson, who served for less than a year between 1991 and 1992. Although Philippe has not been a high-profile politician in France, his appointment did not come as a surprise to politics watchers as he is an insider who knows the system well.
“Although he had suggested that he wanted a woman, everyone expected Edouard Philippe, ” Schön-Quinlivan said.
“Macron needs a Prime Minister who could deal with the parliament, and knows the ins and outs of how it works.”
“If he (Macron) does get a strong majority in June the Prime Minister will be the person to apply the President’s policies as a kind of second-in-command, ” said Ariane Bogain, a lecturer in French and politics at Northumbria University.
“But if he doesn’t have a majority the Prime Minister will have to lead the country. This is why the June election is crucial. If Les Républicains have a majority the PM will implement their policy — not Macron’s.”
That means the President could find himself having to reconsider his choice of Prime Minister just a month after making the appointment, to achieve a working coalition.
In the meantime, the next step will be for him to announce his new cabinet of 15 ministers. Later on Monday, he will meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin.
