Is Emmanuel Macron playing on Bernard Cazeneuve's nerves? The French president will meet with the former Socialist and former prime minister on Monday, September 2 – a "serious" contender to France's premiership according to the Elysée – but he is also scheduled to talk to former presidents François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy and right-wing figure Xavier Bertrand.
Le Monde has found that Cazeneuve, now a lawyer, was approached in early August by a Macron aid tasked with sounding out his intentions. He replied that he was not interested, but that in view of the country's worrying situation, he was ready to "do his duty." Cazeneuve then began approaching former collaborators looking to form a potential cabinet. In private, Cazeneuve, whose name has been circulating for weeks and whose ratings have improved and worsened, has made no secret of the fact that he would like to know where he stands, two months after the parliamentary elections. "I hate the feeling of being used," he recently told a close friend.
Why has the Elysée fueled this torment? Does Macron, who would have preferred to appoint a prime minister from the right, hope to draw the right-wing Les Républicains into a coalition, while Nicolas Sarkozy, in an interview with right-wing French daily Figaro published on Friday, August 30, called on his friends to govern? No one knows.
One thing is certain: Appointing Cazeneuve as prime minister would have a cost, both political and personal. First of all, it would mean that Macron is willing to relinquish some of his power and acknowledge that he lost on July 7 after calling for the dissolution of the Assemblée Nationale. Implicitly, it would also mean acknowledging that the "new world" has failed to such an extent that the old one must be called back. It would be like going back to square one, with Macron's "revolution" putting itself in parenthesis... Finally, it would mean "cohabiting," having a prime minister from a different political camp, with an experienced and shrewd political leader who has already governed.
Respected on both right and left, Cazeneuve is not one to let anyone step on his toes, even if he is loyal and reserved. "I will not be a left-wing prime minister who pursues right-wing policies," he has said in private, while making it clear that he wants to establish a genuine cohabitation with Macron. Could Macron, who doesn't want to see his record unraveled and who is looking to preserve his comfort zone, accommodate this?
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