The new Prime Minister, François Bayrou, was the guest of “L’Evénement, l’interview” on France 2, Thursday December 19. This was the first interview with the head of government since his appointment to Matignon by Emmanuel Macron on Friday. Crisis in Mayotte, new government, 2025 budget: François Bayrou covered several burning issues. He called for rapid reconstruction, “maybe” in “two years” in Mayotte, devastated by Cyclone Chido. Pressed to form a government, he said he hoped to present his list of ministers “during the weekend”, “at least before Christmas”.
Asked about the pension reform, François Bayrou said he believed that there is another possibility than raising the age to 64, while the question of repealing the reform is still raised as a red line by the opposition. “I will not use 49.3, unless there is an absolute blockage on the budget”, also affirmed the Prime Minister, who mentioned the 2025 budget, which France will have to adopt in the coming months, despite the censorship of the previous government. “I hope we can have it in mid-February. I’m not sure I’ll make it”he conceded.
François Bayrou suggests that the parties enter the government. During the transpartisan meeting organized in Matignon on Thursday afternoon, the Prime Minister asked his interlocutors to take a position by Friday noon on their desire to join the government or not. François Bayrou, who has increased the number of interviews since his appointment, has also proposed to party leaders of “resume without suspend” the 2023 pension reform.
The Prime Minister does not intend to “discard” the RN and LFI from “national life”. François Bayrou considered that the non-invitation of these two parties to today’s meeting was not “no reason to exclude them from national life”promising to “involve people in the work we have to do”reports Matignon. “On all substantive issues, my intention is that republican dialogue fully plays its role”he added.
The doubtful left facing Bayrou, the more open right. “We have not found reasons not to censor it”declared the first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, at the end of the meeting. “I am still waiting for François Bayrou to take on the role of Prime Minister. But I wonder if he will succeed”added the leader of the environmentalist senators, Guillaume Gontard. The former president of the Liot group, Bertrand Pancher, on the contrary found the meeting “interesting”. For his part, the boss of LR deputies, Laurent Wauquiez, asked the other representatives “a six-month stability commitment” for the future government.
