François Bayrou, surrounded in particular by Elisabeth Borne (g), Minister of Education and Bruno Retailleau (d), Minister of the Interior, heading towards the Elysée for the Prime Minister's first Council of Ministers (AFP / Bertrand GUAY)
“There is a way” to get out of political instability, François Bayrou assured Friday ahead of his first Council of Ministers, during which Emmanuel Macron called for “unity” and “audacity”, particularly for quickly adopt a budget after the censure of the previous government.
Like every new year, the members of the government first met at Place Beauvau, at the Ministry of the Interior, for the traditional back-to-school breakfast, where the host of the place, the Vendéen Bruno Retailleau, offered everyone a bottle of “trouspinette”, a thorn wine.
Another ritual, the government in close ranks then joined on foot the village hall of the Elysée, a few dozen meters away. Ministers then remained around the president for a Defense Council dedicated to Mayotte, three weeks after the passage of Cyclone Chido.
“There is a path” to get out of “this period of instability”, “it is even better defined than we think”, François Bayrou assured his ministers, according to his entourage. “If we are united, we will be able to remove a certain number of obstacles before us,” said the Prime Minister, who had placed 2025 under the auspices of a triptych of “reconciliation, action, stability”.
President Emmanuel Macron, for his part, called on ministers for “unity” and “audacity”, reported government spokesperson Sophie Primas.
He also expressed his “concern about the instabilities that democracies are experiencing”, added a government source, and his wish that there be “no letting go of political coups which would endanger the country”.
– “Sit” on the deficit –
Mr. Bayrou, who hopes to last longer in Matignon than his predecessor, who remained in office for three months, is similarly deprived of a majority in the National Assembly, due to not having been able to expand his government beyond the center and the right.
A gap that he hopes to compensate for by the presence of political heavyweights, such as former Prime Ministers Elisabeth Borne (Education) and Manuel Valls (Overseas), and a few ministers who have, according to a government source, “a history ” with the left, such as Eric Lombard (Economy) or François Rebsamen (Territorial planning).
François Bayrou on January 3, 2025, in Paris (AFP / Bertrand GUAY)
Several of their colleagues were in the media Friday morning with a message hammered out in unison: “We need a budget.”
Because without a finance law since January 1, “France is operating in minimum service”, explained on RTL Catherine Vautrin, in charge in particular of Labor and Health. “If we don’t have a budget, we won’t be able to take care of the residents (of) the neighborhoods,” for her part underlined the new Minister of the City, Juliette Méadel, on TF1. The situation is a “budgetary emergency”, said Aurore Bergé (Women-Men Equality), calling on France Inter for “unity and stability”.
But the government will undoubtedly “sit down” on reducing the deficit, an elected official consulted by Bercy told AFP.
According to the newspaper Le Monde, Mr. Bayrou would have set a deficit objective of 5.4% of GDP instead of 5% as envisaged by Michel Barnier.
The numerical objective “will be the result of discussions” of the government with the political forces, swept aside spokesperson Sophie Primas, who did not give a timetable for the adoption of the budget. François Bayrou had mentioned “mid-February”.
In the meantime, its “main orientations” should appear in the general policy declaration of January 14, she added.
– Grain of salt –
Emergency also for Mayotte, where the Prime Minister went with five ministers to announce a battery of measures intended to put this department, the poorest in France, back on its feet.
This text presented next week will be “adopted before the end of the month”, assured Ms Primas.
The reporting exercise of the Council of Ministers was repatriated to the Elysée, at the request of François Bayrou, while his predecessor had chosen to relocate it to a building in the Prime Minister's services.
Bayrou government: two thirds of the 35 ministers have already been during the presidency of Emmanuel Macron (AFP / Nalini LEPETIT-CHELLA)
To prepare for this first meeting, the Prime Minister had a long lunch on Thursday with the president. Way of easing tensions, while the head of state hesitated in December to appoint the boss of the MoDem, the latter then threatening to break their historic alliance.
Since then, the president has not held back from putting his two cents into the work of the government, during his wishes to the French. France must “continue to be attractive”, “work and innovate more”, “continue to create jobs” and “ensure its growth by maintaining its finances”, he urged.
The mark of a new relationship of “co-responsibility”, according to the new tenant of Matignon, who started his lease with a historically low popularity rating.
