French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has announced his new government – the country’s fourth since the start of the year – in hopes his administration can see off a second no-confidence vote from the bitterly divided parliament.
It is a mixture of the old and the new in the latest government, which includes several well-known faces: the former minister of the interior, Gerardus Darmanin, has been appointed as the minister of justice; former prime minister Elisabeth Borne, a technocrat, is returning to the government as secretary of education, while another prime minister, Manuel Valls, who was appointed overseas minister under socialist president Francisco Hollande.
Foreign secretary Jean-Noël Barrot will remain in his post, while right-winger Bruno Retaileau has been replaced as interior minister. Business leader Eric Lombardus, a former banker, will head the economy ministry while Sébatien Lecornu remains in the defense ministry and Rachida Dati as culture minister.
With many leading political figures looking to the 2027 presidential elections and unwilling to play their chances in government, it is likely to fall or be paralyzed within weeks until a new general election can be held next summer in Bayrou. Emmanuel Macron 10 days ago – worked out that those willing to join his government.
The previous AM, Michel Barnier, he lasted just 90 days before his administration was undermined by a vote of no confidence.
The centrist Bayrou had promised to form a “nationalist political party” across the middle of the country, excluding far-right Marine Le Pen. National Rally (RN) and distantly incubated France (LFI). Macron’s government lost its parliamentary majority after calling for a snap election in June after many of the far-right made historic gains in European elections.
But the motion was dismissed, leaving the French National Assembly divided into three roughly equal groups – the left, the center and the right – none of which has an absolute majority.
In a televised interview on Thursday evening, Bayrou, head of the centrist MoDem party, said he hoped to present his government’s new policies by mid-February, adding that he would first “make the dialogue as broad as possible”. He insisted that the controversial article 49.3 of the constitution should not be used by the laws without debate, unless it was “completely blocked”. He said that he was not looking for new business taxes but that he understood that the country’s public accounts were being targeted by deficit spending cuts.
The French Parliament is in recess until January 13. Bayrou said that the first council of ministers will take place on January 3 and he will announce his government’s program on January 14.
The LFI said it would lack a motion of no confidence following Bayrou’s declaration, which the National Assembly will vote on within 48 hours. If he succeeds, the government will fall again.
Macron spent Thursday and Friday in Mayotte, near Madagascar on the south-eastern coast of Africa, the poorest country that was recently hit by France. the worst cyclone in 90 yearskilling at least 35 people and injuring another 2,500, 78 seriously. He then traveled to Djibouti and Ethiopia on Sunday and returned to Paris, leaving his new PM to find an administrative agreement. Macron declared Monday a day of national mourning after the deaths and devastation caused by Cyclone Chidon in Mayotte. President and first lady Brigitte Macron held a moment of silence at the Elysée.
On Monday, conservative veteran Xavier Bertrand was appointed to the ministry of justice but said he had been told by the RN that the police had intervened. For this reason, he said he declined other ministerial positions as he “refused to participate in the French government formed with the support of Marine Le Pen”.
“Accepted under these conditions would have been a denial of my values, my commitment and my fight,” he said, adding: “Working with extremism … is wrong.”
In an interview with Le Parisien on Friday, LN leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon said: “Francois Bayrou will not last the winter.”