Barely born to try to end a long political crisis, the government of Michel Barnier, a team between the Macronists and the right, is already under fire from criticism from the left and the National Rally.
“It is a fragile government,” “without heavyweights,” noted the former President of the Republic François Hollande on France Bleu Limousin on Sunday. The PS MP from Corrèze tackles “a team that already seems rickety” and believes that “it must be censored,” with a socialist motion.
At the RN, this hypothesis is not excluded either. ‘We will see what Michel Barnier tells us and depending on the budget that will be built, we obviously reserve the possibility of censoring,’ declared on franceinfo Sébastien Chenu, vice-president of the Frontist party.
How will Michel Barnier try to defuse the situation? His entourage and France Télévisions have announced his presence on the 8pm news on France 2. The first official steps of the 39 new ministers will not take place until Monday.
A welcome breakfast will be held at 8:00 a.m. at Matignon before the transfer of power between 10:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Then, a Council of Ministers is planned for 3:00 p.m. at the Elysée around the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron.
The government announced on Saturday gives pride of place to the presidential party Renaissance, and a good place to the party Les Républicains, despite having come out in sharp decline in the legislative elections caused by the controversial dissolution of the National Assembly.
‘Results’
‘The French expect only one thing from public officials: results. So I am here to act, with a single watchword: restore order to ensure harmony,’ affirmed on X after his appointment the new Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, whose conservative profile on social issues and very firm on immigration has crystallized criticism on the left but also within the presidential camp.
The new Minister of Economy and Finance, the young Macronist Antoine Armand, himself estimated in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche that excluding ‘automatically certain exceptional and targeted levies would not be responsible’ given the state of public finances. He also promised to ‘reduce public spending’.
Very tense context
The preparation of the 2025 budget, which has already been delayed by an unprecedented amount, is the number one emergency in a very tense context. As a sign of its importance, Michel Barnier wanted to keep an eye on this explosive issue by placing Macron’s Minister of Public Accounts Laurent Saint-Martin under his direct supervision.
Among the other names known to the public, Rachida Dati remains in Culture, and Sébastien Lecornu in the Armed Forces.
The rare survivors are the MoDem’s Jean-Noël Barrot, promoted to Foreign Affairs, as well as the Macronists Catherine Vautrin, who is moving to the Territories, and Agnès Pannier-Runacher, in a large ministry of Ecological Transition and Energy.
Among the new entrants, the main surprise is the Renaissance MP Anne Genetet for Education, who is better known for defence issues.
Teachers’ unions are already firing broadsides at the new minister, ‘a casting error in light of the challenges for the school’ according to Sophie Vénétitay, general secretary of Snes-FSU. ‘Angry’, Guislaine David, general secretary of FSU-Snuipp, deplores the appointment of a ‘clone of Gabriel Attal to continue the policy undertaken’.
Two weeks after the end of the Paralympic Games, associations are also concerned about the absence of disability in the titles of ministries.
Only one minister from the left
The only catch came from the left, while Emmanuel Macron advocated a government of ‘rallying’ and Michel Barnier tried hard to attract social democrats: Didier Migaud to Justice. But the former socialist deputy left active politics in 2010.
The centre-right coalition was also immediately marked by tensions between the Prime Minister and the central bloc of the President, who had governed unchallenged for seven years.
The cause is a team considered too right-wing by the MoDem and part of Macron’s party, and whose program remains vague pending the general policy statement scheduled for October 1.
“Anyone can kill anyone, tomorrow you put another government in place and it will be the same thing,” notes on Radio J, the president of the UDI and centrist senator Hervé Marseille, an ally of Emmanuel Macron.
Forced to give up some of his prerogatives in this coalition situation, the head of state is concentrating on his own domain with a speech on Sunday on the theme of conflicts and peace before the Sant’Egidio community, close to the Vatican, gathered in Paris. He will be in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday at the UN General Assembly.
/ATS
