French ministers take office, the PS raises its tone

(Keystone-ATS) The day after the presentation of the new government, the transfers of power continued. At the Ministry of Justice, a ghost has returned: Gérald Darmanin. The new Minister of Justice promised to work “hand in hand” with Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, one of the 19 ministers in the Barnier government reappointed.

He promised to make narco-banditry and drug trafficking his “absolute priority”, and said he would give “very firm” instructions to prosecutors in the coming days.

Earlier, it was former Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne who took possession of a large Ministry of Education and Research. During this handover, she launched a very political call to “find the path to institutional stability”.

Another former head of government, Manuel Valls, overseas, promised to make Mayotte and its reconstruction an “emergency”. He announced that he would go with the Prime Minister “as quickly as possible” to the territory ravaged by the passage of Cyclone Chido.

He was immediately received at Matignon, noted an AFP journalist. Just like the new Minister of the Economy Éric Lombard, who took office on Monday.

The former director of the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, presented by François Bayrou as a man of the left, immediately called for “treating our endemic evil, the deficit”.

New budget, censorship

This will be the first challenge for the Bayrou team: to pass a budget for 2025 in the National Assembly, the same place where on December 4 his predecessor Michel Barnier was overthrown by a motion of censure.

The new Prime Minister hopes that the presence of heavyweights in his team will protect him from this. In any case, he does not plan to ask for confidence on January 14 from a fractured Assembly.

“I am convinced that the action that I define before you and the government team will ensure that we will not be censored,” the centrist leader declared on Monday a few hours after the presentation of his government.

“None of the conditions of the non-censorship pact have been respected” in the composition of the new government, nevertheless replied Tuesday the leader of the PS Olivier Faure, “there is no reason to grant anything to this government.”

The socialist leader, who had agreed to negotiate a sort of non-aggression pact with François Bayrou, regretted that his demands had not been heard: “no dependence on the extreme right, no more forceful passage to 49.3 and a change of direction.”

He specified that his group could vote for censorship as soon as the general policy declaration was made. La France insoumise (LFI) has already announced its intention to table a motion of censure, Mathilde Panot criticized a team full of “people disowned at the polls and who contributed to sinking our country”.

Xavier Bertrand

But the National Rally, the largest group in the Assembly, once again reiterated that it would not a priori censor the new government.

Marine Le Pen, however, assured Tuesday in a video message that the French would be led “soon, very soon, at worst in a few months” to choose “a new path”. And the president of his party Jordan Bardella did not mince his words against the government list: “Fortunately, ridicule does not kill” because “François Bayrou has brought together the coalition of failure”.

On the side of the Republicans (LR), who remain in government, Laurent Wauquiez spoke of “very demanding” support for François Bayrou which could be “withdrawn” depending on the course set.

Within the right-wing party, the president of Hauts-de-France Xavier Bertrand announced on Monday an hour before the government's announcement that he would not be part of it “because of the opposition of the National Rally”. In a press release, he denounced a government “formed with the approval of Marine Le Pen”.

And François Bayrou had to deny the rumor of a telephone exchange with Marine Le Pen in the final adjustments to the composition of the government.

The government team has 35 members, slightly smaller than that of Michel Barnier (42) and almost equal with 18 women and 17 men. A first Council of Ministers is planned after the holidays, on January 3.