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Macron reshuffles cabinet, eyeing a ‘reset’ for France

French President Emmanuel Macron reshuffled his government on Thursday as he looks to move on from a series of crises since his re-election last year, government sources said.

Published: 20 July 2023 16:53 CEST

Macron reshuffles cabinet, eyeing a 'reset' for France

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and president Emmanuel Macron. Photo by Yoan VALAT / POOL / AFP

After weeks of speculation that he might change prime minister, the 45-year-old head of state said on Monday that he was sticking with Elisabeth Borne.

Since his re-election last May, Macron has faced months of fierce street protests over a deeply unpopular pensions reform and was forced into crisis management again late last month when riots erupted nationwide.

READ ALSO Who’s who in the new French government?

Advisers and ministers had long argued over whether the centrist should carry out a major overhaul of the cabinet to signal a fresh start, but in the end the changes were limited.

The highest-profile change saw the replacement of Pap Ndiaye, France’s first black education minister, who despite a solid intellectual profile was seen as lacking political experience and found little support among Macron’s allies.

His successor is Gabriel Attal, 34, a former government spokesman and currently public accounts minister, and rising star in the Macron administration, the sources told AFP.

Junior interior minister Marlene Schiappa was also sacked after she became embroiled in a scandal over the management of a public fund to fight Islamic extremism which she announced in 2021.

The feminist campaigner also irked her colleagues by posing for Playboy magazine in the middle of the protests over Macron’s pension reform, which raised the retirement age to 64 from 62.

France got a new health minister, Aurélien Rousseau, who was previously chief of staff to Prime Minister Borne.

Macron’s popularity ratings remain low but have begun to recover after suffering a near-record slump in April, with 31 percent of respondents in a July 5th poll saying they had a positive view of him.

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France's Macron visits Germany to soothe ties and warn of far-right peril

Macron on his three-day, four-stop visit will seek to emphasise the historic importance of the postwar relationship between the two key EU states, as France next month commemorates 80 years since the D-Day landings that marked the beginning of the end of German World War II occupation.

But all has not been smooth in a relationship often seen as the engine of the EU, with Berlin taken aback by Macron’s refusal to rule out sending troops to Ukraine and German officials said to be uneasy at times about his often-theatrical style of foreign policy.

In a question-and-answer session on social media with young people earlier this month, Macron enlisted help from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz when asked if the Franco-German “couple” was still working.

“Hello dear friends, long live French-German friendship!” Scholz said in French in a video on Macron’s X feed. “Thank you Olaf! I very much agree with you,” Macron replied in heavily accented German.

While Macron is a frequent visitor to Berlin, the trip will be the first state visit in 24 years following a trip by Jacques Chirac in 2000 and the sixth since the first postwar state visit by Charles de Gaulle in in 1962.

Macron’s trip will begin Sunday afternoon with a day of talks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose role is largely ceremonial compared with the might of the French presidency.

On Tuesday he will travel to Dresden in the former East Germany to deliver a speech on Europe at a European festival. Tuesday sees Macron in the western German city of Munster and later in Meseberg outside Berlin for talks with Scholz and a Franco-German joint cabinet meeting.

‘Ways of compromise’

The trip comes two weeks ahead of European elections where polls show that in a major potential embarrassment for Macron, his coalition is trailing well behind the far right and may struggle to even reach third place.

The speech in Dresden, a city where the German far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) garners considerable support, will likely see Macron warn of the danger the far right poses to Europe.

In a keynote address on foreign policy last month, Macron issued a dire warning about the threats to Europe in a changing world in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die,” Macron said. “It can die and this depends only on our choices.”

Officials from both sides are at pains to emphasise that while there are periodic tensions on specific issues, the fundamental basis of the relationship remains sound.

But Macron’s refusal to rule out sending troops to Ukraine sparked an unusually acidic response from Scholz that Germany had no such plans. Germany also does not share Macron’s enthusiasm for a European strategic autonomy less dependent on the United States.

“The Franco-German relationship is about disagreeing and trying to find ways of compromise,” said Helene Miard-Delacroix, specialist in German history at the Sorbonne university in Paris.

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