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French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne resigns

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne resigned on Monday, with French President Emmanuel Macron set to name a successor in a bid to relaunch his second term in office.

Published: 8 January 2024 18:16 CET

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne resigns

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and French President Emmanuel Macron in January (Photo by Alain JOCARD and Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

As part of a long expected reshuffle Macron opted to replace his Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, who had held the position for 20 months.

The favourites to become the next PM are 37-year-old Armed Forces minister Sebastien Lecornu, 43-year-old former agriculture minister Julien Denormandie and Education Minister Gabriel Attal, just 34, whose future has been the subject of intense speculation in recent hours.

A source close to the government told AFP that Attal was now the favourite to succeed Borne. If named, he would be France’s youngest ever and first openly gay prime minister.

Borne, aged 62, was only the second woman to lead a government in France. She had held talks with Macron at the Elysée on Monday afternoon, a sign that the reshuffle was imminent, and left about an hour later without making any announcement.

Macron paid tribute to Borne after accepting her resignation.

“Your work in serving the nation each day was exemplary,” he said.

Madame la Première ministre, chère @Elisabeth_Borne, votre travail au service de notre Nation a été chaque jour exemplaire. Vous avez mis en œuvre notre projet avec le courage, l’engagement et la détermination des femmes d’État. De tout cœur, merci. pic.twitter.com/G26ifKfKzj

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) January 8, 2024

In her resignation letter Borne said she had been “passionate about the mission” of being French prime minister and suggested her resignation was die to the “will” of the president to name a new PM.

Borne also said it was “vital more than ever to continue the reforms”.

In France, prime ministers are not directly elected and are instead appointed by the president. As such, it is not uncommon for French presidents to replace their prime ministers from time-to-time, based on the political climate at hand.

Commentators in France had been speculating that there would be a cabinet reshuffle for several days, particularly following the passing of the immigration bill last month, which went through with many controversial changes imposed by the centre-right opposition.

The reshuffle is seen as essential to relaunch Macron’s centrist presidency for its final three years, and prevent him becoming a “lame duck” leader.

Francois Bayrou, leader of the centrist MoDem party, whose early endorsement of Macron was key to his initial 2017 election success, told BFM TV that a change in government makeup was “necessary”.

While Macron cannot run again in 2027, relaunching his government is seen as crucial to help prevent far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen becoming president.

European Parliament elections in June will also pose a major test, with Macron’s Renaissance party risking embarrassment at the hands of Le Pen’s National Rally (RN).

Despite his age, Attal is a more political figure than the technocratic Borne, and polls have shown him to be one of the most popular government ministers.

If named, he would go toe-to-toe ahead of the European elections with another rising star of French politics, the even younger Jordan Bardella, just 28, who is now party leader of the far-right RN.

Other key posts are also subject to uncertainty.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, 41, a right-winger who spearheaded the immigration reform but burned his fingers when it was initially rejected by parliament, was seen as a candidate for a new job, possibly as foreign minister.

But recent reports indicate he may stay in his post.

The future of Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna has also been the subject of speculation.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, the only senior minister to be in office since Macron’s election in 2017, is likely to remain in his post.

Macron likes “keeping all options open until the last moment”, a source close to the Elysee said.

Member comments

Anonymous - 8 January 2024 at 18:43 CET

I would offer to re launch Macron myself. But he would not survive.

Become a Member to leave a comment.

Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.