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French press review 15 October 2018

French commentators expect President Macron to end a 12-day wait for a new government, after a hectic week-end of consultations.

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Le Parisien says Monsieur Macron locked himself up in his office at the Elysée on Saturday and Sunday, staying out of reach of the inquisitive media. as he fine-tune the casting of his new cabinet.

The paper says he took his time to study the files of the candidates presented to him but it warns that extending the suspense a little further would be dangerous for some of his ministers and cabinet hopefuls whose nerves are not made of steel.

Le Figaro says the two phrases which have been making the rounds during the talent search of the past fortnight are about Christophe Casterner. He is the former secretary general of Macron's La République En Marche party and Secretary of State for Parliamentary Relations in prime minister Édouard Philippe's government.

The right-wing daily also expects education minister Jean-Michel Blanquer to become one of the stars of the new government. According to Le Figaro during his short time at the portfolio, Blanquier managed to get an innovative dialogue going in the ideologically divided education sector.

The publication expresses the wish to see his recipe applied to topics like security and immigration, as well as anthropological issues such as medically-assisted procreation and gestational surrogacy.

The paper doesn't say what promotions they will get and if one of the two is tipped to be appointed interior minister to replace Gerard Collomb whose resignation exposed President Macron's difficulties in finding new ministers.

Le Figaro also bets on a possible move for foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian who replaced Gérard Collomb at the canonization of Pope Paul VI in Rome at the week-end. According to the newspaper it was more out of a protocol decision than anything to else.

L'Humanité will not be impressed no matter what the casting turns out to be. According to the communist daily, it is a major crisis of confidence the French people have witnessed over the past two weeks.

The centrist illusion incarnated by Macronism was nothing more than an exercise in political deceit, the publication argues. L'Humanité claims that the tinkering that it has taken to form a government will not bring down the injustices characterizing President's first years in office.

Libération says the awaited cabinet reshuffle will not bring greater purchasing powers to struggling French workers. According to Libé, nobody believes President Macron when tries to shrug off the rich man's image dogging his Presidency.

In the publication’s view, it won’t take long for the popular classes to realize that only the very wealthiest are the beneficiaries of the new finance bill drafted by the public accounts Minister Gerard Darmanin.

Libération expresses pessimism at the prospects of seeing a powerful left-leaning personality emerging in the new cabinet who is capable of bringing a little bit of equilibrium in the so-called right-wing draft budget.

Today's le Parisien tells it all about all the unknown illness which make people’s lives a nightmare. According to the newspaper more than 4 million French citizens are suffering from conditions unrecognized by doctors and health insurance system without necessarily being hypochondriacs.

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