Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


The Reinvention of Emmanuel Macron

Jamie Dettmer

   Buffeted by social unrest, economic woes and the coronavirus pandemic,
   French President Emmanuel Macron is in the process of rebooting his
   government two years out from a reelection bid, hoping to go one better
   than immediate predecessors who served just one term.

   Among his worries, aides say, is the possible emergence of an
   unconventional or populist candidate. But his biggest threat may rest
   with the prime minister he just fired, Edouard Philippe, a center-right
   politician who was replaced last week with a technocrat of limited
   political ambitions -- 55-year-old Jean Castex.

   Philippe's departure did not come as a surprise to France's political
   classes. His likely dismissal had been gossiped about for weeks in the
   national press. Conventional wisdom had it that Macron, who won as a
   center-left candidate but has been tacking right for much of his
   presidency, would shift leftward in preparation for his reelection bid.
   Philippe would therefore have to be replaced by a center-left figure.

   But Castex, the father of four from a small town in the southwest Gers
   region in the Pyrenees, and a high-level backroom functionary who has
   been overseeing the easing of France's coronavirus lockdown, is a
   Gaullist, which he underscored in his first television interview in the
   new role.

   "I am a social Gaullist," said Castex, who served as a deputy chief of
   staff for former President Nicolas Sarkozy. "My values are
   responsibility. That is to say that we cannot expect everything from
   the state."

.