The Prime Minister will finally stay in France, due to the trip of the President of the Republic on Sunday to the United Arab Emirates to pay tribute to the dead president Khalifa Ben Zayed Al Nahyane. The two heads of the French executive cannot be simultaneously outside the national territory.
Le Monde
It was to be his 352 e and last trip as Prime Minister. Jean Castex will not go to the Vatican, Sunday, May 15, to attend the canonization of the explorer Charles de Foucauld.
While his resignation is expected in the coming hours, this trip to Rome was canceled on Saturday due to the express trip of Emmanuel Macron to the United Arab Emirates on Sunday to pay tribute to the last president of the country, the sheikh khalifa Ben Zayed Al Nahyane, died Friday at the age of 73. In order to prevent the two officials from the executive not to be simultaneously outside France, Mr. Castex will be replaced in the Vatican by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.
one last buffet with the Ministers
A month from the legislative elections, and while Emmanuel Macron’s second term officially started at midnight on Saturday, Mr. Castex is preparing to leave his duties, just under two years after his appointment in July in July 2020, to take over from Edouard Philipe. At the beginning of May, government spokesperson Gabriel Attal announced that Mr. Castex and his ministers “will remain [ent] in place”, up to at least May 13. “The Castex government will go to the end of its task and remain in place until the end of Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term,” he said. As for the name and date of the appointment of the next chef or the next head of government, the mystery remains at this whole hour.
This week, Mr. Castex therefore farewell to Matignon staff on Wednesday, then Thursday evening at the ministers, invited to a buffet in the gardens with their spouses. The last council of ministers of the government of Mr. Castex took place on Wednesday May 11. On this occasion, the head of state “thanked each and everyone for the work that was done. (…) He said with solemnity and affection that he had been very proud to be around this table with John Castex and his government in the past two years, “said Attal at the end of the Council of Ministers.
The resignation of the government announced by mistake on its site
Furthermore, Saturday morning, the government’s website posted for almost an hour a page announcing the resignation of the Castex government, “due to technical problems”, rectified Matignon to the France-Presse agency (AFP), which Confirmed information from France Télévisions .
The web page made by mistake on Government.fr is “regularly used in the event of a reshuffle. It has been prepared for a while already. It is a ghost page that has risen in Google research. The information service of the information service Government has contacted the search engine to rectify, “said Matignon, adding that the page is now” derefeated and depublished “. “Only press releases are proof of press releases. There is no planned reshuffle to our knowledge today,” concluded the Prime Minister’s entourage to AFP.