Meet France’s Madame la Premiere Ministre: Elisabeth Borne. Elisabeth Borne is the new Prime Minister of France. She is the first female to hold the role in 30 years.
Borne will succeed Jean Castex as Prime Minister, the Elysée Palace said on Monday. Thus, becoming only the second woman to hold the position since WWII ended. Édith Cresson was the country’s first female PM. She served under Socialist President François Mitterand from May 1991 to April 1992.
“The role [of prime minister] is not exempted from public exposure and criticism, dear Elisabeth, people even say that’s what it had been created for,” Castex said of what the French often refer to as the “job from hell,” working to implement plans on behalf of an ever-present president.
Borne was previously the Minister of Environment, Transportation, and Labor.
She will oversee a French administration that will work with implementing President Macron’s election campaign pledges. It includes retirement reform and the expansion of climate-change legislation.
Borne’s profile is likely to help Macron appeal to radical-left voters who supported Jean-Luc Melenchon in the first round of the presidential election in April while avoiding upsetting followers of Marine Le Pen on the right.
Women in society
President Emmanuel Macron won the elections on April 24, prompting her appointment. According to the Elysée, Borne has been “entrusted with forming a government”. During a ceremony honoring the handover of power on Monday, she dedicated her nomination to “every little girl.”
Borne said in a speech, “Follow your dreams all the way. Nothing must hold back the fight for the place of women in society.”
Castex had presented his resignation to the Elysée Palace earlier Monday. Castex was a little-known person when he became Prime Minister in July 2020, having served as mayor of his little village of Prades in southwest France. After that, he was in charge of France’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.