PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron could choose a new prime minister as soon as Monday, according to his entourage, as he fights political setbacks.
The position of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has been tenuous ever since an immigration bill pushed by Macron was voted down in parliament last month. It was finally passed with many controversial changes imposed by the center-right opposition.
Macron, who is also facing a growing challenge from the far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen, met with Borne Sunday night.
His office said the discussion centered on flooding in northern France and a looming freeze across the country, but observers said they likely discussed a widely-predicted cabinet reshuffle.
Francois Bayrou, a centrist leader whose early endorsement of Macron was key to his initial 2017 election, told BFM television that “a change is necessary” in the government makeup.
Under the French system, the president sets general policies, but the prime minister is responsible for day-to-day government management, meaning they often pay the price when an administration runs into turbulence.
Macron has over the past week consulted about reinvigorating his administration with Bayrou, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, and former prime minister Edouard Philippe.
No final decisions appeared to have been taken before the meeting with Borne however.
A close Macron adviser said the president was “finalizing his choices” and “things will move at the start of the week, probably with a new prime minister Monday.”
But another associate of the president added: “Everything is possible, including doing nothing.” That would mean Borne could still keep her job.
If she is replaced, the two leading candidates are Sebastien Lecornu, the 37-year old defense minister, and Julien Denormandie, the 43-year-old former agriculture minister who has been close to Macron for a decade.
Choosing between the two risks exacerbating tensions within Macron’s movement. Denormandie has been with Macron from the start of his presidential campaign. Lecornu later jumped ship from the center-right The Republicans party.
Macron’s political party lacks a majority in parliament and is already riven by disagreements over the immigration law, which was greatly hardened as a condition for receiving necessary support from The Republicans.
Some 200 French intellectuals, actors, and union leaders issued a call Sunday to protest against the law on January 21, saying it represented a “dangerous turn for the Republic.”
Denormandie almost founded a start-up with Macron in 2014 before becoming his deputy chief of staff when Macron was Economy Minister under President Francois Hollande. Denormandie has been working in the private sector since 2022.
Lecornu joined Macron in 2017, and would follow in the footsteps of two previous prime ministers — Philippe and Jean Castex — who also defected from The Republicans.
Lecornu has become a close adviser to Macron, who has used his experience in local and regional government. However, one close adviser warned that “we are maybe moving too quick to condemn” Borne.
In her 20 months as prime minister, the 62-year-old Borne — France’s second female head-of-government — has pushed through 30 pieces of legislation and has overcome previous doubts about her future.
France’s Macron moves to name new government chief in reshuffle
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France’s Macron moves to name new government chief in reshuffle
- The position of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has been tenuous ever since an immigration bill pushed by Macron was voted down in parliament last month
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
Carney says Canada has no plans to pursue free trade agreement with China as Trump threatens tariffs
TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Sunday his country has no intention of pursuing a free trade deal with China. He was responding to US President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 100 percent tariff on goods imported from Canada if America’s northern neighbor went ahead with a trade deal with Beijing.
Carney said his recent agreement with China merely cuts tariffs on a few sectors that were recently hit with tariffs.
Trump claims otherwise, posting that “China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada. So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone! President DJT”
The prime minister said under the free trade agreement with the US and Mexico there are commitments not to pursue free trade agreements with nonmarket economies without prior notification.
“We have no intention of doing that with China or any other nonmarket economy,” Carney said. “What we have done with China is to rectify some issues that developed in the last couple of years.”
In 2024, Canada mirrored the United States by putting a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles from Beijing and a 25 percent tariff on steel and aluminum. China had responded by imposing 100 percent import taxes on Canadian canola oil and meal and 25 percent on pork and seafood.
Breaking with the United States this month during a visit to China, Carney cut its 100 percent tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on those Canadian products.
Carney has said there would be an initial annual cap of 49,000 vehicles on Chinese EV exports coming into Canada at a tariff rate of 6.1 percent, growing to about 70,000 over five years. He noted there was no cap before 2024. He also has said the initial cap on Chinese EV imports was about 3 percent of the 1.8 million vehicles sold in Canada annually and that, in exchange, China is expected to begin investing in the Canadian auto industry within three years.
Trump posted a video Sunday in which the chief executive of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association warns there will be no Canadian auto industry without US access, while noting the Canadian market alone is too small to justify large scale manufacturing from China.
“A MUST WATCH. Canada is systematically destroying itself. The China deal is a disaster for them. Will go down as one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history. All their businesses are moving to the USA. I want to see Canada SURVIVE AND THRIVE! President DJT,” Trump posted on social media.
Trump’s post on Saturday said that if Carney “thinks he is going to make Canada a ‘Drop Off Port’ for China to send goods and products into the United States, he is sorely mistaken.”
“We can’t let Canada become an opening that the Chinese pour their cheap goods into the U.S,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We have a , but based off — based on that, which is going to be renegotiated this summer, and I’m not sure what Prime Minister Carney is doing here, other than trying to virtue-signal to his globalist friends at Davos.”
Trump’s threat came amid an escalating war of words with Carney as the Republican president’s push to acquire Greenland strained the NATO alliance.
Carney has emerged as a leader of a movement for countries to find ways to link up and counter the US under Trump. Speaking in Davos before Trump, Carney said, “Middle powers must act together because if you are not at the table, you are on the menu” and he warned about coercion by great powers — without mentioning Trump’s name. The prime minister received widespread praise and attention for his remarks, upstaging Trump at the World Economic Forum.
Trump’s push to acquire Greenland has come after he has repeatedly needled Canada over its sovereignty and suggested it also be absorbed into the United States as a 51st state. He posted an altered image on social media this week showing a map of the United States that included Canada, Venezuela, Greenland and Cuba as part of its territory.
