Gérard Larcher will “clearly” refuse the post of Prime Minister if he is offered

The President of the Senate wants to silence the rumor. Gérard Larcher will “clearly” refuse the post of Prime Minister if he were to be offered a reshuffle, he said on Sunday.

“If the President of the Republic offered me to be Prime Minister, I would refuse. […] I will clearly refuse,” said Gerard Larcher (LR), guest of the RTL/Le Figaro/LCI Grand Jury. “Being Prime Minister comes from a project that we share, from a contract that we have signed and therefore it is only possible before or after an election,” he explained.

Ambiguous statements

Speculation had flourished at the end of April, after statements deemed ambiguous. Gérard Larcher then let it be known that “today” he would not say yes to Matignon. Asked about postponing the immigration bill until the fall, the President of the Senate considered that the migration issue is “one of the great failures of Emmanuel Macron’s six years”, pleading for an ambitious text, then why not “secondly” a referendum.

🔴 Future Prime Minister of Emmanuel Macron?

🗣️ “If the President of the Republic offered me to be Prime Minister, I would refuse. Clearly.” @gerard_larcherpresident of the Senate who wants to “silence the rumours”.

📲 #TheGrandJury #La26 @mchantrait pic.twitter.com/ZEZziFzs76

— LCI (@LCI) May 7, 2023

Regarding recent comments by Gerald Darmanin who accused the head of the Italian government Giorgia Meloni to be “unable to solve the migratory problems” of his country, the president of the Senate considered this “exit not useful”. “Still, we should be able to give lessons, in terms of migration, I am not sure that we are exemplary”. Asked about the possibility of the Minister of the Interior being appointed Prime Minister, “it’s not up to me to choose”, swept Gérard Larcher.

Likely candidate for the Senate in September

Regarding his future in the Senate, Gérard Larcher made it clear on March 2 that he did not intend to let go of the “plateau”. The 73-year-old senator LR had thus announced that it was “quite likely” that he would be new candidate for his succession following the senatorial elections in September which will renew half of the hemicycle.

“I deeply believe in Parliament, I deeply believe in bicameralism”, he had advanced to justify this new candidacy for a post whose holder is the third figure of the State, behind the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister.