French premier Edouard Philippe, who had also enjoyed good popularity during the lockdown, has resigned and will return to being mayor of Le Havre. Instead of him, within a few hours, President Emmanuel Macron appointed Jean Castex, a senior official whose choice is very significant. Meanwhile, because Castex comes from centre-right political circles, and his appointment to Matignon therefore confirms a trend already affirmed in the last municipal elections: Macron is increasingly on a collision course with the French left, relaunched by the success of the ecological movement, and squeezes the eye to the right moderate. The one left orphaned by François Fillon, who even risks prison for the affair of his wife's hiring in her staff.
The alliance has already been tested in the ballots: in some cities, even important ones such as Lyon and Bordeaux, Macron's party and the republicans have united against the candidate from the red-green area (however losing on both occasions). Now the feeling is confirmed with the appointment as president of the Council of Ministers of a man who he was Nicolas Sarkozy's right-hand man at the Elysée, and also of Xavier Bertrand, who was both Minister of Health and Labor between 2006 and 2007. The rise of Castex is also significant for another reason: it was he, in recent months, who managed the "déconfinement" , or what we in Italy have called Phase 2 and Phase 3. Castex is therefore a worthy representative of the so-called "deep state", a technocrat.
Often described as a moderate Gaullist, he has been mayor of a town in the Pyrenees since 2008, where he was re-elected last March 15, with 75% of the votes in the first round. “He is a profound connoisseur of public affairs and a servant of the State”, says those who know him and who are reported by the French press. In short Macron chooses a trusted man and suitable for opening a new season of dialogue. Even and above all with the center-right political area.
