She won’t even have to cross the street. Brigitte Bourguignon changes jobs, but no workplace, rue de Ségur. By obtaining the portfolio of health and prevention, the one who was Minister Delegate for Autonomy in the government of Jean Castex succeeds his minister responsible, Olivier Véran.
→ PORTRAIT. Olivier Véran, from health to relations with Parliament
Two crises and one failure
In autonomy, its balance sheet was marked by two crises (the management of the Covid in nursing homes and the Orpea scandal), as well as by a failure: the abandonment, in September 2021, of the old age law, a project which was close to his heart. Should we understand, through his appointment, that the subject of addiction could come back to the fore?
→ ANALYSIS. Borne government: no “complete renewal”, but a “new method”?
The former medical secretary and socialist deputy from the North knows the case in any case, while being one of the ministers likely to bring a left guarantee to the new government. “Social progress and humanist values have always been the compass of my action in the field”, wrote Brigitte Bourguignon on Twitter, three days before her appointment.
Big projects pending
Among the files that will pile up on the desk of the new minister are, among others, the reform of the public hospital or the inequalities of access to care. She who, as a deputy, had co-filed, in 2017, a bill on the “right to die with dignity” will also be responsible for organizing the citizens’ convention on the end of life, announced by the candidate Macron during the presentation of his project, last March.
Minister of Health but also of Prevention, as stated in the new title of her function, Brigitte Bourguignon should adopt the preventive approach put forward by Emmanuel Macron in his program, with the initiation, in particular, of plans relating to mental health or infertility. But it will also have to prevent a possible resumption of the Covid, in the fall, or possible new epidemic risks.