Elisabeth Borne Becomes France’s 2nd Female Prime Minister

President Emmanuel Macron on Monday named former labor minister Elisabeth Borne as France’s second female prime minister. Borne, a 61-year-old technocrat once close to the Socialist party, takes over from Jean Castex. Macron named her transport minister in 2017 and she served as ecology minister from 2019 to 2020, before becoming labor minister. Prior to that, Borne was president of the publicly-owned Paris public transport network RATP. She will now be tasked primarily with ensuring that all government decisions are compatible with France’s goals to cut emissions, after years of France missing its targets. The names of other government members will be unveiled in coming days, with fewer ministers than before, according to a person familiar with Macron’s thinking. Borne has handled tricky missions as minister, including the reform of the national train service SNCF and unemployment benefits. An official in Macron’s office described her as a left-wing woman with deep knowledge of the state, local politics and business, although she has never been elected. She’ll be running for parliament in June, the official said. Macron defeated rival far-right Marine Le Pen in the presidential election in April, by a much smaller margin than last time around, in 2017. In his victory speech, the 44-year-old centrist acknowledged rising discontent and vowed to heal rifts. Appointing Borne is intended as an olive branch to those voters who only rallied round Macron to stop Le Pen from taking office. It’s also an attempt to change the narrative. Macron began his first term saying feminism would be his “great cause,” but he went on to appoint an interior minister accused of rape (an allegation the minister denied) and a justice minister who ridiculed feminist ideals. On Macron’s watch, France dropped to 20th place from 9th in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Political Empowerment subindex. Women have long been underrepresented in French politics. They secured the right to vote and hold office only in 1944, much later than Germany and the US. And although this year’s presidential election was historic in the number of female candidates in the first round — four out of 12 — questions around women’s rights barely got a mention in the campaign. Subscribe to our YouTube channel: Subscribe to our newest channel Quicktake Explained: Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world. To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit , or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app. Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake: Connect with us on… YouTube: Breaking News on YouTube: Twitter: Facebook: Instagram: