The ministers of François Bayrou's government take office on Tuesday, on Christmas Eve, during transfers of power which must specify the Prime Minister's roadmap, confident in his ability to avoid censorship.
“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 on the BFMTV channel a few hours after the presentation of his government.
The two former Prime Ministers Elisabeth Borne, appointed to Education, and Manuel Valls, to Overseas Territories, will be particularly scrutinized, as will another returnee, Gérald Darmanin, who will occupy the Justice portfolio.
On the Bercy side, the new Minister of the Economy Eric Lombard took office on Monday evening, replacing Antoine Armand. 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”.
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 believes that the presence of heavyweights in his team must help protect him from this, as he has not been able to open his government further to the left.
François Bayrou, who will deliver his general policy declaration on January 14, indicated Monday evening that he would not seek confidence from the Assembly.
“In the wake of this general policy declaration, there will be a sort of vote of confidence because there will probably be a motion of censure,” argued the Prime Minister, who “respects the fact that political forces “don't want to be assimilated against their will into government policy.”
La France insoumise (LFI) has already announced its intention to table a motion of censure. But the National Rally, the largest group in the Assembly, has made it known that it will not censor the new government a priori.
– “Provocation” –
The oppositions were very harsh with the new government, notably accusing the Prime Minister of recycling personalities who had previously failed.
An “extreme right” government in the form of “provocation”, judged the boss of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure. A team “filled with people disowned at the polls and who contributed to sinking our country”, added the head of LFI deputies Mathilde Panot.
The National Rally, for its part, handles irony: “fortunately ridicule does not kill” because “François Bayrou brought together the coalition of failure”, judged the president of the far-right party, Jordan Bardella.
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.
The government team has 35 members, is less numerous than that of Michel Barnier (42) but less tight than envisaged, and almost equal with 18 women and 17 men. And marked by a certain continuity with 19 ministers who are retained.
The new Prime Minister said he was “proud” of a “collective of experience to reconcile and renew trust with all French people”, ten days after his arrival in Matignon and strong in having respected his objective of forming a government before Christmas.
The first Council of Ministers of this new team is scheduled for January 3 around President Emmanuel Macron.
