The Prime Minister of France presented her resignation to Macron

It happens amid rumors of a in-depth reshuffling of the government to give oxygen to the second term of the centrist leader.

The message that Emmanuel Macron published in X

“Madam Prime Minister, dear Élisabeth Borne, your work in the service of our nation has been exemplary every day (…) Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Macron wrote on the social networkafter accepting his resignation.

Élisabeth Borne’s time in Emmanuel Macron’s government

Terminal, a technocratic officialbecame the second woman to head the French government as prime minister in May 2022, after Macron was elected for a second term until 2027.

But her 20 months as head of a government without an absolute majority in Parliament were marked by the high political tensionsuch as during the pension reform imposed by decree, and an episode of urban unrest in mid-2023.

The approval of an immigration reform and the division of the ruling party

However, the approval in December of ato immigration reformwhich the government tightened to obtain the support of the right, divided the ruling party, especially when the extreme right celebrated the “ideological victory” of the new law.

In his resignation letter, consulted by the AFPBorne, 62, estimated “more necessary than ever to continue with the reforms”.

The election of Borne’s successor is announced as crucial to try to maintain the fragile balance of Macron’s centrist alliance, with deputies even from the center-left, in a context of increasingly right-wing public opinion.

The possible successor to be prime minister of France

Among the possible successors he appears as a favorite the Minister of Education, Gabriel Attal, according to sources close to the executive. At 34, he would become the youngest head of government of the French republic and the first openly homosexual.

The June 2024 European Parliament elections They will serve as a thermometer on the remodeling. Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party leads the polls with 27% of the vote, followed by Macron’s party (19%), according to an Opinionway survey in mid-December.