Elisabeth Borne, who yesterday became the second woman to lead the French government under the V^e République, thirty years after Edith Cresson, will have to impose a more severe style than that, too good-natured, of Jean Castex.

This former close friend of the Socialist Party, now a participant in the left wing of Macron, cannot count on any state of grace in the face of opposition: Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who hopes to be appointed to Matignon if the new union of the left (Nupes) wins the legislative elections, considers it as “among the harshest figures of social abuse” in the macronie, while Marine Le Pen predicts the “continuation of the policy of contempt, of deconstruction of the State, of social destruction” of Mr. Macron.

Reform of unemployment insurance, opening to competition of the SNCF network: the secretary general of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, criticized on LCI “a very negative balance sheet” until then, and a minister who “listen but do not hear, like Mr. Macron”. “Elisabeth Borne’s record in social matters is the record of a right-wing woman”insisted on France Inter Julien Bayou, national secretary of Europe Ecology-The Greens and candidate for the Nupes in the legislative elections.

On the right, we think the opposite. With this appointment, the “Left-wing Macron wants to impose a left-wing policy”said Xavier Bertrand, president (ex-Les Républicains) of Hauts-de-France, during a public café in Paris.

During his short speech on the steps of Matignon, Monday, M^me Terminal called for “act faster and stronger” face “to the climate and ecological challenge”in “associating even more the living forces of our territory, because it is very close to the French that we will find the right answers”.

But it is on purchasing power, the number one concern of the French, that she will first have to convince, in particular with the implementation in the coming days of the food voucher, in a context of high inflation. She is also expected at the turn to launch the explosive pension reform, with the aim of raising the retirement age to 64 at the end of the five-year term, then to 65 by 2031.