his place at Matignon was acquired at the cost of a standoff with Emmanuel Macron

While the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron appointed François Bayrou as Prime Minister this Friday, this choice was not the one initially planned by the Head of State.

A strong passage. After intense negotiations, François Bayrou was appointed Friday December 13 to Matignon by Emmanuel Macron, while behind the scenes buzzed with contradictory rumors.

The decision was finally achieved only at the cost of a two-stage standoff in the morning. First an interview lasting almost two hours, during which Emmanuel Macron would have first informed his oldest ally of his intention to appoint the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu to Matignon, according to several sources within the presidential camp.

A decision which provoked the anger of François Bayrou, threatening a rupture, even if it meant “burning the ships”, according to a loyalist of the head of state to AFP. It was then that the President of the Republic, under blackmail, finally changed course by formalizing his decision at midday.

A “Himalaya of difficulties”

If François Bayrou ended up winning his case, the now Prime Minister said he was facing “a Himalaya of difficulties”, the country being stuck in a major political crisis and struggling to find a budget.

From the court of Matignon, alongside his predecessor Michel Barnier, who remained in office for three months before being overthrown, François Bayrou assured: “No one knows the difficulty of the situation more than me.”

During the traditional transfer of power, the head of MoDem repeated his priorities. Firstly, debt and deficits, which he had placed at the heart of his presidential campaign in 2007, “a question which poses a moral problem, not just a financial problem”, he said, while France reached records in this area in 2024.

Other promises include tackling the “glass wall that has been built between citizens and those in power,” and above all “giving opportunities to those who don’t have them.” “A sacred duty,” launched François Bayrou, recalling that this was an original promise from Emmanuel Macron in 2017.