It was 7:30 pm on Tuesday, September 9, when Olivier Faure's phone rang at the Socialists' headquarters in Paris. For an hour, the party's leader, whose name had been circulating for a week as a potential candidate for prime minister, had been in the middle of the party's national executive meeting. Seeing the number displayed, Faure picked up. President Emmanuel Macron was calling to end the suspense.

Macron informed him that he had not chosen him to head the government, despite Faure's offer of service a few days earlier. The appointee was Sébastien Lecornu, the outgoing minister for the armed forces. The nomination would be confirmed before 8 pm. The president justified his decision by noting that the outgoing coalition remained the largest bloc in the Assemblée Nationale.

Faure recounted the exchange to senior Socialist officials. On one hand, Macron's call was seen as a "sign of respect." "It's been at least 10 years since a president felt obliged to call the Socialist leader to inform them of the choice for prime minister," said Luc Broussy, president of the party's national council and a close ally of Faure. On the other hand, the appointment of someone close to Macron, from the right, probably signals continuity with the policies pursued since 2017.

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