Elisabeth Borne and Emmanuel Macron
On Monday, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne resigned, as President Emmanuel Macron prepared to deliver a long-awaited cabinet reshuffle in a bid to revitalize his presidency’s last three years.
After days of heated backroom haggling, Education Minister Gabriel Attal, 34, emerged as the frontrunner to succeed Borne.
Gabriel Attal, if elected, would be France’s youngest and first openly gay prime minister.
In a statement, the presidency stated, “Ms. Elisabeth Borne today submitted the resignation of the government to the president, who accepted it”.
It stressed that she and other ministers would continue to do daily business until a new administration is formed.
However, Borne’s resignation letter to Macron, a copy of which was obtained, indicated that she would have preferred to remain in her position.
“While I must present the resignation of my government, I wanted to tell you how passionate I was about this mission”, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne wrote in the letter.
While some expected a new prime minister to be appointed that evening, a source close to Macron claimed the announcement would be made only on Tuesday morning.
It was unclear if this was due to the presidency’s deliberate slowness or last-minute protests from heavyweight government leaders to the prospective selection of Attal.
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