Ending her nineteen-month stint as French prime minister on Monday, Élisabeth Borne seemed keen to remind us that she was, despite all evidence to the contrary, a woman of the Left. Making clear that she was not going willingly, Borne’s resignation statement near-directly echoed the words with which the Socialist Michel Rocard had left the prime minister’s office back in 1991. Borne’s reference to the center-left governments of decades past was, Le Monde observed, a symbol of her “left-wing reference points” — even if her administration’s final act was “the passing of an immigration reform hailed by the far-right as its own ‘ideological victory.’”

The legislation Borne passed last month with the help of conservative opposition MPs punitively tightened the rules on migration, causing upset even among some more liberal Macronites. It limits access to benefits, places an overall cap on the number of foreigners arriving, and makes it easier to expel “delinquents” even if they are not criminal convicts. Yet this wasn’t the only reason why this was one of the most reactionary governments in recent memory. Most importantly, it raised the retirement age from sixty-two to sixty-four despite months of massive social opposition. Last year it also slashed benefits to jobseekers, imposing a 25 percent cut in the duration of payouts in times of modest overall unemployment.

If this program was surely an ambitious assault on France’s social model, Borne is often cast as a “lame duck” prime minister, lacking a strong base of support. Macron appointed her upon his reelection as president in May 2022, before then losing his parliamentary majority in that June’s elections for the National Assembly. With only 250 of 577 legislators to count on, Borne’s government typically negotiated opposition help (normally meaning Les Républicains, a once-mighty Gaullist-conservative force) or else used 49.3, a constitutional article allowing it to pass bills without votes in parliament. While the Left, notably Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise, fiercely denounced Borne’s continual reliance on this measure as undemocratic, she justified it by citing its past use by governments like Rocard’s.