No question of yielding to any “pressure” to form the government. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne assured Thursday, May 19 that it would take “the time” it would take. “We’re not going to put pressure on ourselves to decide right now. We want the best team with the best talent, “said Ms. Borne during her first trip as prime minister to Les Mureaux (Yvelines), three days after her appointment.

“Obviously we’re not hanging out. I can assure you that we are working on it very closely, ”insisted the new host of Matignon, who had again gone to the Elysee Palace on Thursday morning to work with Emmanuel Macron on the formation of his government.

“Are we going to know the government today?” “, asked a journalist to the President of the Republic at the end of a press conference, in the courtyard of the Elysée, alongside the President of Moldova, Maia Sandu. “But it has nothing to do with Moldova!” “Reacted Emmanuel Macron with a smile.

“Useful Time”

“The work continues in a serious way, but it is not a light thing, it requires time, substantive discussions, and [that’s] what the Prime Minister and I are doing,” replied Mr. Macron. “So as much useful time as necessary, because it is the government of France,” assured the head of state.

In the Yvelines, Ms. Borne dedicated her first field visit to a meeting with associations working in favor of equal opportunities and the integration of women, stressing that this would also be a great cause for Emmanuel’s second five-year term. Macron. The one who is only the second woman to access Matignon, after Edith Cresson (1991-1992), had already dedicated her appointment “to all the little girls”, during the handover Monday with Jean Castex.

“I owe everything ultimately to the Republic and to our country, and so that’s why it’s close to my heart, this chance that we can have in our country to realize our dreams (…) despite the fact that we doesn’t have the networks, that we don’t have the codes and that we may not have had the right address, “said Ms. Borne on Thursday.

Gender equality and climate issues

Speaking to representatives of local and national associations, Ms. Borne, little known to the general public, took the opportunity to recall her own trajectory, marked by the suicide of her father, a former deportee, when she was only 11 years old. “I was attracted to science (…) When you have a difficult life course, which is my case – you can have unpleasant events in your personal life – science has a reassuring side “, she said.

Asked about gender equality, the new host of Matignon assured that “it was the great cause of the [previous] five-year term and that remains so”. On this question, “we cannot say that we have finished the fight”, she said, referring in particular to the fight against “violence” the day after the renunciation of Jérôme Peyrat, convicted of domestic violence in 2020, but who, until his decision to withdraw his candidacy yesterday, was the candidate invested by the presidential majority in the 4th constituency of the Dordogne.

Asked about “climate issues” by a young woman, Elisabeth Borne replied that she wants to put them “at the heart of all policies”. “Given the march there is, it’s a radical transformation of everything: the way we produce, [to] move, [to] house ourselves,” she began by saying, arguing that “that’s why the President of the Republic announced that the Prime Minister would be in charge of ecological planning”. “If we want to win this battle, all the choices we make must incorporate this dimension,” she assured Ms. Borne, while the suspense remained over the composition of the government on Thursday evening.