French President Emmanuel Macron appointed former Labour Minister Élisabeth Borne to be the country’s prime minister on Monday. Borne, 61, joined Macron’s party La République en Marche (Republic on the Move) in 2017, shortly after it was founded, MIA informs.
Until then she was linked to the Socialist Party. Borne, who hails from Paris, graduated from an engineering college and has worked for various ministries as well as at the state railway and Paris transport company. In 2017, Borne became an deputy minister, then minister for ecological change in 2019 and labour minister in 2020.
She succeeds Prime Minister Jean Castex, who resigned from the premiership with his government earlier on Monday, a customary move for French governments following a presidential election.
Macron was re-elected to the presidency in April, defeating the far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in a convincing victory in a run-off.
Borne is only the second woman to serve as France’s prime minister.
Until now, only Édith Cresson has previously filled the post, being in office from May 1991 to April 1992.