Many confirmations, some returns and few surprises. The French Prime Minister François Bayrou doesn't seem to want to stray too far from the example of his predecessor Michel Barnierrecently disheartened, and is aiming for a team created along the lines of the previous one.
The iron-fisted Republican remains in place, Bruno Retailleau and the Macronian Sébastien Lecornurespectively Interior and Defense, as well as the Sarkozyst Rachida Dati for Culture and the centrist Jean-Noël Barrot for Foreign Affairs.
The delicate Ministry of Economy, however, is managed on a technical level: that of Eric Lombard, outgoing director of Cassa Depositiwell regarded by the left for the public positions held during the presidencies of François Mitterrand and François Hollande.
The new Keeper of the Seals is Gérald Darmaninvery loyal to Emmanuel Macron, already at the helm of the Interior and Public Accounts. An appointment that smacks of a gift to Marine Le Pen, strongly opposed to the Republican Xavier Bertrand, her historic rival who remained in the race until the end. But two former prime ministers are also back in the new executive: the Macronian Elisabeth Borne, who will head Education, and the former socialist Manuel Valls, responsible for Overseas.
The new executive has a structure strongly oriented towards the centre-right, which has very little leftism. The only glimmer of the left comes from the Ministry of Territorial Management and Decentralization, which went to François Rebsamen, who previously headed the Labor Department for Hollande.
«It's not a government, it's a provocation” tweeted Olivier Faure, the secretary of the Socialist Party, while according to the leader of the Greens, Marine Tondelier, Bayrou has put himself «nelle mani from the National Rally». But Jordan Bardella called the new executive “ridiculous”.
