A government before Christmas, the fourth of 2024, ten days after the appointment of Prime Minister François Bayrou. Some sparks with two former prime ministers: number two in the government, the former prime minister Elisabeth Borne in a large ministry of education and research, and number three the former socialist prime minister Manuel Valls in Overseas, just at the moment which the cyclone disaster in Mayotte is shaking France, faced with a long-term abandonment of the department in the distant Indian Ocean.
Another former PS, former mayor of Dijon and former minister, François Rebsamen, is appointed to decentralization. But in essence there are no major political changes compared to the precedent of Michel Barnier, which collapsed due to the no-confidence vote by the New Popular Front and the Rassemblement National.
THE PRIORITY OF THE GOVERNMENT is to pass the budget. Eric Lombard, a technocrat (formerly of Generali), who comes from the management of the Caisse des Dépôts, the financial arm of the state, is appointed to the Economy position. Lombard in his youth had been part of Michel Rocard's socialist current, an opening towards the PS, in the hope that it would convince him not to vote for no confidence.
The far right remains a disturbing shadow, which has determined choices: this is the accusation of Xavier Bertrand, Lr president of the Nord-Pas de Calais region, who had been contacted by Justice.
«I refuse to participate in a French government formed with the support of Marine Le Pen», who feared an opponent (the conflict is hot at a regional level where the far right is strong) just a few months after the expected sentence for the removal of funds to the European Parliament, which could cost the leader of the RN a 5-year sentence of ineligibility, therefore the impossibility of standing for the next presidential election.
TO JUSTICE Gérald Darmanin, former Minister of the Interior, was appointed instead. A questioning choice for a politician who, when he was at the Interior, had stated that “the problem of the police is justice”, after having intervened in support of a street protest by the police and who recently met Marine Le Pen on in response to the request for punishment for the fraud in the European Parliament.
At the Interior, Bruno Retailleau remains, the very right-wing minister, much appreciated by the far right, who is waiting for a new law on immigration (while the previous one, which is not even a year old, has not yet fully entered into force, waiting for all implementing decrees.
FOR THE LEFTa new law on immigration is a “red line”, the Socialist Party has also repeated this. Therefore, it is possible that, after a few weeks of turbulence, the New Popular Front will regroup. In view of a new vote of no confidence in the near future.
The “non-censorship” that Bayrou attempted to negotiate with the PS, in the hope of splitting the NFP, seems to be receding after the announcement of the composition of the government. “It's not a government, it's a provocation”, reacted the socialist secretary, Olivier Faure, “extreme right in power under the surveillance of the extreme right”.
It's not a government, it's a provocation. The far right in power under the surveillance of the far right Olivier Faure, secretary of the Socialist Party
A mass of “mediocrity” for the PCF. «Sinister gift» from Macron for Eric Coquerel of France Insoumise, «more and more to the right, more and more minority, more and more illegitimate, defeated at the polls».
The secretary of the Ecologists, Marine Tondellier, paid tribute to the great refusal of Xavier Bertrand, despite his political rival in the Northern region, blocked by the far-right opposition.
On the far right, the secretary of the RN, Jordan Bardella, speaks of a “government of failure”.
BEYOND A FEW NAMES prominently, the bulk of the Bayrou government is a recycling of Barnier's. Same composition, same consequences?
The first council of ministers is on January 3, François Bayrou's general policy speech is scheduled for January 14. For the leader of France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the government will fall “on the 16th”, with the left's no-confidence vote at the first vote.
Many ministries confirm the previous occupants, from Defense (Sébastien Lecornu, whose name had circulated as prime minister), to the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, the centrist Jean-Noël Barrot remains in Foreign Affairs, Annie Genevard in Agriculture. Agnès Pannier-Runacher confirmed to Ecology. At the Budget is Amélie de Montchalin, who had been Minister of European Affairs.
