 "Jean Castex")
President Emmanuel Macron named Jean Castex, a top civil servant and local mayor who orchestrated France's coronavirus lockdown exit strategy, as his new prime minister on Friday as he acted to reinvent his administration and win back voters.
Castex, 55, hails from the centre-right of French politics and served for two years as the second-highest ranking official in the Élysée Palace during Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency.
An Elysee official described Castex as a senior civil servant whose experience in local politics would help Macron connect with provincial France. Castex was a "social Gaullist", the official said in reference to the more
