During the handover Monday evening at Matignon, the new Prime Minister had a thought for Edith Cresson, the only woman to have held the position. She also thanked Jean Castex at length.
She is the second woman to join Matignon in thirty years. Elisabeth Borne, just appointed Prime Minister on Monday, had it in mind during the handover with Jean Castex at the end of the day. On the red carpet, “very moved”, she could not “help but have a thought for the first woman who held these positions, Edith Cresson”. More generally, she “dedicated this nomination to all little girls, telling them:” go after your dreams and nothing should stop the fight for the place of women in our society “”. A moment of loud applause.
Terminal at Castex: “You are a rare person”
The essence of her first speech as Prime Minister, lasting five minutes, was to thank her predecessor Jean Castex, of whom she was minister for twenty-two months. “You are a rare person because you always favor the collective and you embody what a minister is, what a Prime Minister is, that is to say someone who smells his country. Thank you very sincerely and congratulations”.
She thanked him for his “words”, for the “numerous battles waged in the service of the French”. “You knew how to conquer the hearts of the French by relentlessly crisscrossing our country by going to meet them,” she added at her side. With this Prime Minister from the right, she has “many things in common”. “We share the conviction that public policies must be built through dialogue (…) We are also attached to the general interest, to the cohesion of our country, to the equality of people”. She promises to continue on this path in the face of the many challenges evoking, among other things, the international situation and the climatic and ecological challenges.
A few minutes before, Emmanuel Macron, who received him at the Elysee Palace at the end of the day, published on Twitter what looks like a roadmap for his new head of government. “Dear Elisabeth Borne, Madam Prime Minister, Ecology, health, education, full employment, democratic renaissance, Europe and security: together, with the new government, we will continue to act tirelessly for the French and the French”.
Read also: Elisabeth Borne, a reputed tenacious technician at Matignon