French Government is Fired

Macron appointed Jean Castex as new PM. Castex is 55 years old and used to be a colleague of ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Why did Macron fire PM Philippe? Officially, Macron believes Philippe is too much on the right side of the political cleavage. Off the record, Philippe was more popular than Macron himself. The next presidential elections will take place in 2022 and Macron doesn’t want someone more popular than himself in his entourage.

Macron was perceived as a “non-politician” and was elected in 2017 as a possible disrupter of the political system. He started his career as MD of Rothschild France.

Europe is an old continent and many EU countries are still ruled by a political class….career politicians with no business experience. Many career politicians make promises during election times that they will not fulfil after election. Career politicians do not always have affinity with the real living conditions of the population. This may lead to an alienation of the political system causing social disenchantments (the yellow vests).

Macron shared his vision for the future and said he wanted more social and green policies! The questions is: shall he fulfil these promises?

Macron has been been hitting the ball wrong since his arrival at the French Presidential Palace called the l’Elysée. He should have focussed on modernising the political institutions, reducing the number of career politicians in office and modernising the labour market. Instead, he did …. well I don’t know exactly.

Complaints have been filled against PM Philippe. The accusations relate to how he dealt with the corona crisis. The accusations were done by doctors, citizens, associations, detainees. A special tribunal for political crimes will look into that.