French President Emmanuel Macron picked Labour Minister Elisabeth Borne as his new prime minister as he prepares for legislative elections in June. Borne, 61, will be the first woman named as prime minister since Edith Cresson briefly occupied the office during the presidency of Socialist leader Francois Mitterrand in the early 1990s.
A soft-spoken career bureaucrat who served numerous Socialist Party ministers before joining Macron’s government, Borne had a brief stint as environment minister in 2019 when she pushed through bicycle-friendly policies. She then took charge of the Labour Ministry and oversaw negotiations with unions that resulted in a cut to unemployment benefits for some job seekers. On her watch, unemployment fell to its lowest level in 15 years and youth unemployment to its lowest level in 40 years.