Lucie Castets

Lucie Castets (born March 1987) is a French civil servant and economist. Associated with the Socialist Party, Castets was nominated by the New Popular Front (NFP) to serve as prime minister of France in the aftermath of the 2024 legislative election.

Early life and education

Castets was born in Caen to parents who worked as psychoanalysts, and resided in Caen up until the age of 18. She moved to Paris to study at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and afterwards studied political economy and public law at Sciences Po. She received a master's degree from Sciences Po and the London School of Economics and studied Chinese at Fudan University in Shanghai, before graduating from the École nationale d'administration in 2013.

Civil service career

Castets began her career in the French civil service in 2007, working as an assistant to the cultural attaché at the Consulate-General of France in Shanghai between 2007 and 2008. She became involved with the World Bank in 2011, primarily working on projects involving financial intelligence. In 2014, she was working at the Direction générale du Trésor within the Ministry of Economics and Finance, and then became the government commissioner to the Bureau central de tarification.

Between 2018 and 2020, Castets headed a section at Tracfin within the Ministry of Economics and Finance, the intelligence agency responsible for combating illegal financial circuits, money laundering, and the financing of terrorism. In 2020, Castets joined the administration of mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, becoming an economic advisor. In October 2023, she was appointed by Hidalgo to serve as Director of Finance and Purchasing in Hidalgo's office.

Academic career

Between 2014 and 2017, Castets was a lecturer of economics at Sciences Po. In 2022, she became a part-time associate professor of economics at Paris Dauphine University, and has also been published in the journal Alternatives économiques.

Political career

Castets was a member of the Socialist Party between 2008 and 2011, when she was a supporter of Martine Aubry and the Union of the Left. She has worked for the Besoin de gauche movement for Pierre Moscovici and for the Point d'ancrage think tank. Castets entered elected politics for the first time after being selected to stand as a candidate for the Socialist Party in the 2015 regional election in Normandy, although she was not elected.

Castets left the Socialist Party in 2011, due to disagreements with the political direction that François Hollande took the party. However, she remained affiliated with the party and participated in the campaign of Anne Hidalgo during the 2022 presidential election, also becoming closer to Clémentine Autain.

In 2021, Castets cofounded the Nos services publics collective, which seeks to "highlight dysfunctions and make proposals" to improve public services in France. She received public attention in 2022, when she questioned Stanislas Guerini on the television program Ce soir about the unwarranted use of consulting firms.

In July 2024, Castets was nominated by the NFP as their candidate for prime minister of France, in the aftermath of the 2024 legislative election in which the NFP won the most seats but not a majority. Following her nomination, Castets said that her political priorities were reversing the pension reform by Emmanuel Macron, a tax reform to make sure that "all pay their fair share", and to improve purchasing power by raising salaries and social benefit payments.

Macron dismissed her nomination by saying that he would not make any decisions before the end of the 2024 Summer Olympics and that "the question is not a name", but which governmental majority would be formed in the National Assembly. Castets rejected forming a coalition with Macron's Ensemble group due to what she said were profound disagreements, and urged Macron to accept her nomination.

Personal life

Castets is married to a woman and they have a child. She played tennis for about ten years, and served as ball girl at the French Open at the age of 15.