With a new cabinet full of rightwing stalwarts, French President Emmanuel Macron is betting that his 2022 re-election hopes are best built on a conservative base that wants economic recovery to be the priority, analysts say.

After his centrist party's rout in municipal elections last month that saw a surge by the Greens, speculation was rife that Macron would at least give a nod to environmental and progressive forces in a long-expected reshuffle.

Yet nearly all his new picks have roots in the right, in particular the socially conservative, pro-business wing personified by ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy.

French President Emmanuel Macron is building his hopes for re-election on a cabinet of rightwing stalwarts
French President Emmanuel Macron is building his hopes for re-election on a cabinet of rightwing stalwarts POOL / Ludovic MARIN

New Prime Minister Jean Castex -- a low-profile civil servant described as a "Swiss army knife" for his ability to get France's ponderous administrations to move quickly -- was Sarkozy's deputy chief of staff.

The surprise choice for culture, Rosalyne Bachelot, was health minister during Sarkozy's term, while star lawyer Eric Dupond-Moretti, now justice minister, is close to the former president and his supermodel wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

Gerald Darmanin, a former Sarkozy spokesman who served as deputy to Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire -- also a former Sarkozy minister -- was promoted to interior minister.

Nearly all the new picks come from the right
Nearly all the new picks come from the right AFP / Ludovic MARIN

Darmanin has risen despite allegations he raped a woman 11 years ago, claims he denies.

"It's clearly giving key figures from the right the most prestigious jobs," Pascal Perrineau, a veteran political scientist at Sciences Po university in Paris, said of the cabinet choices.

French ministers hold first cabinet meeting since government reshuffle
French ministers hold first cabinet meeting since government reshuffle AGENCY POOL /

Camille Pascal, a former Sarkozy adviser, told BFM television he had sent his old boss a text message saying: "Nobody told me that you were coming back!"

Analysts noted that two of Macron's earliest and most loyal supporters from the left, Christophe Castaner and Sibeth Ndiaye, were pulled from their posts as interior minister and government spokeswoman to make room for the new entrants.

The president also parted ways with his justice, agriculture and labour ministers, all on the left.

French riot police block feminist protesters holding banners against Gerald Darmanin, who has been appointed interior minister despite the reopening last year of an investigation into rape allegations against him dating from 2009
French riot police block feminist protesters holding banners against Gerald Darmanin, who has been appointed interior minister despite the reopening last year of an investigation into rape allegations against him dating from 2009 AFP / GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT

Newspaper editorials were unanimous Tuesday in playing up Macron's rightward tack, with several noting the president has consulted Sarkozy often since his election, also in recent weeks.

"Heading for starboard!" Le Figaro wrote on its front page, while leftwing L'Humanite said "Macron Act II is the late follow-up to Sarkozy Act I."

Macron's move to pick off key conservatives from the Republicans (LR) opposition party also confirms the thin bench of his own Republic on the Move (LREM), which has turned out few homegrown standouts since taking control of parliament in 2017.

"The LREM remains an empty shell that is really a big handicap -- it's hard to be a good director of human resources when you don't have the resources," editorialist Paul Quinio wrote in Liberation.

The newspaper made waves last month with a massive front page picture merging Macron's face with Sarkozy's easily recognisable coiffure, after Macron urged the French to "work harder" for the country's post-coronavirus recovery -- echoing a trademark Sarkozy phrase.

"Emmanuel Macron realises the LREM has not been able to produce any heavyweights," Perrineau said, predicting centrist lawmakers would play an even smaller role in Macron's governing plans for the last two years of his term.

The LREM lost its absolute parliamentary majority to defections earlier this year, though it maintains voting alliances with the traditional MoDem centrists and some smaller groups.

For far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, Macron's reshuffle proves "a more definite, clear desire to be the leader of the right".

"He's already demolished the Socialists... and now he's preparing to do the same to the Republicans," he said at the National Assembly on Tuesday.

"If his politics boil down to a cynical show, a simple tactic of poaching individuals, it's pretty sad," deputy party chief Guillaume Peltier told Franceinfo radio.