Who will be Emmanuel Macron’s fourth prime minister? True to form, the President of the Republic takes his time. Initially hoped for Monday evening, the name of the successor to Élisabeth Borne, who presented the resignation of her government on Monday January 8 in the evening, must be announced this Tuesday January 9 at the end of the morning. However, there is no hurry for the “master of clocks”: no text imposes a deadline for announcing the composition of a new government after the resignation of a prime minister.
In the meantime, the resigning team remains in place and handles “current affairs”, a vague but legally concrete notion. During this period, the Prime Minister can, for example, no longer table a bill, sign decrees or propose a revision of the Constitution.
Under the presidency of Charles de Gaulle, it was the transition between the Pompidou III and IV governments that was the longest. The tenant of Matignon had submitted the resignation of his government after the legislative elections of 1967, on April 1, before being renewed by a decree on the 6th of the same month.
Under George Pompidou, who entered the Élysée in June 1969, the longest power vacuum in Matignon took place in 1973. Following the renewal of the National Assembly, the government of Pierre Messmer resigned on March 29. The power vacuum thus lasted three days: he was reappointed as prime minister on April 2 and the appointment appeared in the Official Journal the next day.
Under Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the government of Raymond Barre II resigned on March 31, 1978, after one year and two days in office. The power vacuum also lasts three days. The former Minister of the Economy and Finance was returned to Matignon on April 3. The publication in the Official Journal appears the following day.
In 1988, during the first mandate of the socialist François Mitterrand, the transition between the Rocard I and II governments lasted one day, from June 22 to 23. Invested as President of the Republic on May 16, 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy appointed François Fillon as Prime Minister the next day. Emmanuel Macron follows the same logic when he appoints Édouard Philippe to Matignon on May 15.
Once appointed, the Prime Minister must propose a government to the President of the Republic. This is where the problem lies. The Fifth Republic experienced several long – even very long – vacancies in certain ministries. In 2018, Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, for example, served as interim Minister of the Interior from October 3 to 16 after the resignation of Gérard Collomb – this is the longest interim at Place Beauvau under the Fifth. Christophe Castaner, a Macronist from the start, succeeded him.
In 2012, François Fillon faced the same exercise. After the resignation of Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy becomes interim Minister of Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing, from February to May. Not enough to compete with the 104 days of interim work by Najat Vallaud Belkacem at the Ministry of Higher Education, between March and June 2015.
