Jean Castex expected to take the head of the SNCF – Liberation
After the government and the RATP, go for the SNCF? Former Prime Minister Jean Castex should be appointed CEO of the national railway company by the executive in the fall, revealed this Thursday, May 12, Le Figaro – « Except huge surprise ». The daily takes tweezers since the main interested party has never confirmed this information, and that he had so far always denied wanting to apply for this key position. « I have never written to the Elysée or another authority, and I do not have a candidate for the succession of Jean-Pierre Farandou », he said again in April, recalling that he had been recently renewed for five years to the direction of the RATP.
It is true that the seat of the boss of the SNCF is soon empty. The current CEO, Jean-Pierre Farandou, must leave the management of the company by this summer due to the age limit, 68 years. Jean Castex, who has never hidden his passion for the railway sector and who has a rather positive assessment at the RATP, has been expected for a few months to replace it. Among the other names mentioned also appear that of Xavier Piechaczyk, president of RTE (electricity transport network), or that of Marie-Ange Debon, president of Keolis, a subsidiary of the SNCF.
But even if he is not officially a candidate, the former Prime Minister can be asked directly by the executive, as he had been in 2020 to implement the deconfination during the COVID-19 then to occupy against all Matignon expectations. On the other hand, as explained Le Figarothis unexpected appointment cannot intervene before fall for legal reasons. Indeed, a former member of the government or president of a public body must, within three years after the end of his mandate, submit to the opinion of the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP), in order to control a possible conflict of interest. From the moment the three years have passed, there is no longer any accounts to be rendered.
If Jean Castex left Matignon over three years ago, May 16, 2022this is not the case of the AFIT management (financing agency for transport infrastructure in France), of which he was the boss from August 17, 2022 to November 9, 2022. « To avoid any remarks of the HATVP, the executive will prefer to wait mid-November to appoint Jean Castex CEO of the SNCF », estimates the daily. In the meantime, assures Le Figaro, Jean-Pierre Farandou will be authorized to direct acting.
According to a minister, the boss of the CGT Sophie Binet herself asked that Jean Castex, who had had good relations with the unions during his lease in Matignon, named at the head of the SNCF. The former head of government is also appreciated by certain unions at the RATP, such as Force Ouvrière, who had called to renew it for a new mandate. Its financial assessment is more contrasted: if RATP’s turnover increased by 10 % in 2024, carried by the Olympic Games and extensions of metro lines, the activity has remained in deficit.
In an interview granted in April to the platformthe Minister of Transport, Philippe Tabarot, imagined, to succeed Jean-Pierre Farandou at the SNCF, « Someone who knows how to dialogue with his employees, who has the culture of financial result, (…) who has knowledge of the house, the rail and the territory. » And add: « I let you guess what can be that person ».
