France’s second woman premier makes surprise frontline return

Paris: Elisabeth Borne, only the second woman to serve as French prime minister, is making a surprise return to frontline politics as education minister less than a year after losing a job that she never wished to relinquish.

An experienced technocrat known for her resilience who pushed through a controversial pensions overhaul while in office, Borne served as premier from May 2022 to January 2024.

The 63-year-old engineer was the first woman to head a French government in three decades after the brief stint in office of Edith Cresson who lasted under 11 months in the early 1990s, during which time she endured rampant sexism.

When Borne took power, she dedicated the moment to “all the little girls”.

“Follow your dreams, nothing must slow the fight for women’s place in our society,” she said.

But her departure after just over 18 months left her denouncing the “insidious sexism” that she said still permeated French politics.

At President Emmanuel Macron’s request, she resigned in January and was replaced by the then 34-year-old Gabriel Attal, who became France’s youngest head of government but he only lasted to the summer.

Borne said after her resignation that women in politics were “constantly” compared to men.

“Men in politics, they all have an interest in imposing masculine codes, it eliminates the competition,” she added.

She also noted that all candidates to succeed her were men.

“It’s as if commentators were saying to themselves, ‘We’ve just had a woman prime minister for 20 months, that’s it, we’re back to normal life’,” she told RTL.

Even when she handed over office to Attal on January 9, Borne had made clear her resentment over sexism in French politics, saying: “I have also been able to see quite often that there is still some way to go for equality between women and men.”

But she added in a message to women: “Hold on, the future belongs to you.”

Borne had proved her loyalty to Macron during his first term in office, serving as transport, environment and finally labour minister from 2020.

As premier she staunchly defended his flagship pensions reform to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

She deployed a controversial executive power to force through the legislation without a vote, despite previously saying she did not want to use it.

Discreet about her private life, Borne was accused by critics of showing too little personality in office.

Borne’s Jewish father had been deported to Auschwitz during World War II and survived the Nazi death camp but never fully recovered. Her father took his own life when she was just 11 years old.

“It’s shocking for an 11-year-old girl to lose her father in these conditions,” Borne told LCI. “And I think I closed up and that I avoid showing my emotions too much.”

“I think… this closing up, maybe, goes a little far. Yes,” she acknowledged.

But she expressed pride over how France had allowed her to study under a special programme for children who have lost parents.

“We are a country where you can be the daughter of an immigrant, where you may have lost your father at 11, but the country reaches out to you to allow you to study,” she said.

“And then you are a prefect (senior local official), and then you are a minister and you are even prime minister,” she added.

Her father, who was reportedly named Joseph Bornstein, fled to France from Poland in 1940 and then fought in the French resistance during World War II. He was captured and deported to Auschwitz in 1944.