France certainly finally has a new government, but it gives pride of place to old names, with many past heavyweights of French politics.
The Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot, and the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, were reappointed to their respective positions in the new executive of centrist Prime Minister François Bayrou, announced Monday evening by the French presidency.
The government is also marked by the return of former prime ministers Élisabeth Borne and Manuel Valls, respectively to National Education and Overseas Territories, as well as the former Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, appointed to the Justice.
Despite his divisive profile, Bruno Retailleau was reappointed Minister of the Interior, reaping the fruits of his announced measures to fight delinquency, drug trafficking and immigration, particularly in the French archipelago of Mayotte.
Eric Lombard, director of the public financial institution Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, becomes Minister of the Economy and Finance, a crucial position as France faces one of the worst budgetary crises in its recent history.
Among the other names: Catherine Vautrin, close to former right-wing president Nicolas Sarkozy, appointed to head a major Ministry of Health and Labor.
Influence of the far right
François Bayrou, appointed on December 13, said he wanted to make appointments before Christmas. The head of government, aged 73, was due to speak on television on Monday evening.
He notably refuted any “influence” of the extreme right on the composition of his government, after the accusations of Xavier Bertrand, approached for Justice, but who claimed to have been ousted from this team under pressure from Marine Le Pen .
The Prime Minister also said he was “convinced” that his government would not be censored.
The first Council of Ministers will be held on January 3, said the Élysée.
The composition of this team was, however, very warmly received by the left, which came first in the June legislative elections.
“An extreme right in power, under the surveillance of the extreme right,” judged the boss of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure.
The head of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier, denounced the “indignity” of Mr. Bayrou, who “puts himself back in the hands of the extreme right”.
“The coalition of failure”, says the RN
François Bayrou was appointed by President Emmanuel Macron after lengthy consultations to find a successor to conservative Michel Barnier, whose minority government was overthrown on December 4 by left and far-right MPs after only three months in office .
Monday evening's announcement puts an end to ten days of negotiations between MM. Bayrou and Macron.
“This duration of this casting in relation to the country's emergencies, the crises we are going through, it's unbearable,” criticized far-right MP Jean-Philippe Tanguy, denouncing “always the same sketch” for the reshuffles. or appointments of head of government.
The president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, accused the Prime Minister of having “brought together the coalition of failure”.
Mr. Bayrou is the sixth head of government since Mr. Macron's first election in 2017 and the fourth since the start of the year, an instability that France has not experienced for decades.
The new prime minister must navigate the fragmented political scene resulting from the early legislative elections organized after the surprise dissolution of the National Assembly by Emmanuel Macron in June. The hemicycle is fractured into three blocks (left alliance / Macronists and centrists / extreme right); none has an absolute majority.
Urgency: budget
François Bayrou wanted to form a team that was tight and as open as possible. He wanted it to include significant figures, from the left as well as the right and center, in order to respond to the emergencies facing the country and avoid further censorship. But this opening objective is far from being achieved.
Above all, ministers will have to urgently prepare a budget for 2025, under pressure from oppositions and the financial markets.
Expected at 6.1% of GDP in 2024, much higher than the 4.4% forecast for fall 2023, the public deficit would miss its target of falling to 5% in the absence of a budget.
Mr. Bayrou's first week in Matignon was especially marked by the barrage of criticism over his presence on the municipal council of Pau, a town in the southwest of which he intends to remain mayor, in the midst of a crisis in Mayotte, hit by a devastating cyclone.
He has a historically low popularity rating for taking office, with 66% of French people saying they are dissatisfied, according to a barometer published on Sunday.
To watch on video
Related News :