Bayrou sets out to find his ministers

The new Prime Minister successively received on Saturday morning the first president of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, then the President of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet. His Senate counterpart Gérard Larcher should appear this evening, said Matignon the day after the appointment of the president of the MoDem, who succeeds LR Michel Barnier, dismissed by a motion of censure three months after his arrival.

The governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, is also expected in Matignon, after the downgrading of France’s sovereign rating during the night from Friday to Saturday by the Moody’s rating agency which fears that “political fragmentation » of the country is not conducive to the rapid recovery of public finances. A deterioration deplored by the boss of LR deputies Laurent Wauquiez who presented it on

During the traditional handover on Friday, François Bayrou immediately raised the subject of the deficit and debt, “a question which poses a moral problem” and “not just a financial problem”.

His first challenge will be to provide France with a budget for next year, with a National Assembly still without a majority. Assuring that he ignores nothing “of the Himalayas that stand before us, of difficulties of all kinds”, he promised to “hide nothing, neglect nothing and leave nothing aside”.

Met on Saturday in Pau, Elizabeth, 75, recognized that Mr. Bayrou’s task would be “very difficult”. “But I know he is quite courageous and combative,” she added. According to an Elabe poll for BFMTV published on Saturday, 40% of French people judge that the appointment of Mr. Bayrou is a bad thing, 31% a good thing, 29% having no opinion.

The Prime Minister, aged 73, must now tackle the composition of his government, which he wants to be compact and dominated by experienced figures.

He must put up with an Assembly which can bring him down if the voices of the left unite with those of the National Rally as during the motion which ended Michel Barnier’s lease. Most political parties, including the RN, asked to be received at Matignon, to talk about the roadmap for the next executive.

Favorable to proportional representation, François Bayrou will have to address this issue in particular with the RN and environmentalists, supporters of changing the voting method. The New Popular Front, which has already announced that it will not participate in the government, is divided over its attitude towards the new occupant of Matignon.

LFI will therefore table a motion of censure as soon as possible, probably after Mr. Bayrou’s general policy declaration. For her part, the national secretary of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier affirmed on Saturday on France Inter that she did not wish to “censor a priori” the government of François Bayrou, but that she was already starting “to have a priori censorship” .

On the right, the Republicans have conditioned their participation in the government on the “project” that the new Prime Minister will present to them. “We will not deny ourselves,” warned LR MEP François-Xavier Bellamy on France Inter, citing immigration, security, agriculture, taxation and the country’s debt as priorities for his party.

Friday evening in Matignon, François Bayrou also received the resigning LR Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, to discuss “security”, including that of the Pope in Corsica on Sunday, or the situation in Mayotte, swept away by a cyclone on Saturday Morning. On

Mr. Retailleau, who crystallizes the annoyance on the left, has in recent months prepared a bill against drug trafficking and another on immigration which he planned to present to Parliament at the beginning of next year. Two bills that he could take up if he is returned to Beauvau.

Mr. Bayrou’s government will also have to decide whether it takes over the text on the end of life, the examination of which was scheduled for early February in the Assembly. The subject has been raised for a long time by the deputy of the MoDem group Olivier Falorni.