In the end it will not be Michel Sapin, a 62-year-old exponent of the Socialist party and former finance minister in office, who will take the place of the "rebel" Arnaud Montebourg as head of the economy. Bercy's seat will instead go to the young Emmanuel Macron, a liberal socialist and a loyal follower of President François Hollande, of whom he was undersecretary in the presidency from his election in 2012 until last June.
Macron, 36 years old from Amiens, has been banker to the Rothschilds since 2008 and represents a moderate choice, which sanctions alignment with a policy that seeks dialogue - and not confrontation - with Germany to loosen the grip of austerity, in line with what the Renzi government is trying to suggest in Italy. Perhaps even further, given that Le Monde himself had defined the rampant manager - in an editorial last January - "the right hemisphere of the Elysée", underlining his propensity for a liberal policy, which was already then "gaining ideological space" influencing the decisions of the president.
Here is the composition of the new government, largely confirmed by the previous one: Laurent Fabius, Bernard Cazeneuve and Christiane Taubira respectively retain the positions of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Justice, Michel Sapin in Finance, Fleur Pellerin replaces Filippetti in Culture and Najat Vallaud-Belkacem the dissident Hamon in Education, François Rebsamen remains in Labour, Jean-Yves Le Drian in Defense and Segolene Royal in Ecology.
