Dand all heads of government appointed under the Ve Republic, Michel Barnier had already broken a record: that of age, the new Prime Minister being, at 73 years old, the oldest tenant of Matignon. Saturday September 14, he broke another: on that day, while he was appointed nine days earlier, he was the one who took the longest to form a government.
The record was previously held by Georges Pompidou: in 1962, it took General de Gaulle’s Prime Minister eight days to appoint his government. Second on the podium: Michel Rocard, in 1988, took five days for this exercise.
The Constitution does not impose any time limit.
More recently, Élisabeth Borne took four days to reveal the list of ministers who would govern the country. Overall, the trend is towards waiting under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron: until now, it took his Prime Ministers an average of 2.7 days to form a government, a longer time than under the presidency of his predecessors.
READ ALSO Government: Barnier on the phone all weekend with the potential lucky winnersThe difficulty for Michel Barnier (who himself will have waited fifty-one days to be appointed by Emmanuel Macron…) lies in the fact that the presidential party did not obtain a majority in the legislative elections in July. It is customary for the President of the Republic to choose a Prime Minister from the political party that obtained the majority. […] Read more
