François Bayrou's government will not be announced this Sunday

Despite signs of an imminent announcement, the composition of the French government should not be known until Monday or Tuesday, after a day of intense negotiations and exchanges between Prime Minister François Bayrou and President Emmanuel Macron.

The government will not be announced this Sunday evening, the president's entourage assured AFP, without specifying whether it would be announced on Monday, a day of national mourning for the French archipelago of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean, after the devastating passage of Cyclone Chido, or Tuesday December 24

The centrist François Bayrou, appointed on December 13, said he wanted to make appointments before Christmas at the latest. He is “making the final adjustments”, his entourage indicated this Sunday, while Emmanuel Macron returned this Sunday morning from a tour which took him to Brussels, Mayotte and Africa. East.

Two interviews this Sunday

The two heads of the executive had planned to meet in person this Sunday at the end of the afternoon after two meetings already during the day. “This is progressing (…) The structuring of the major ministerial poles is fixed,” assured Saturday evening the president of the deputies of François Bayrou’s party, the MoDem, Marc Fesneau, confirming that the complete list of the government should be presented “in a single times” and “before Christmas”.

François Bayrou, aged 73, was appointed by Emmanuel Macron after lengthy consultations to find a successor to the conservative Michel Barnier, whose minority government was overthrown on December 4 by deputies from the left and far right after only three months in office.

François Bayrou is the sixth head of government since Emmanuel Macron's first election in 2017 and the fourth in 2024, an instability that France has not experienced for decades.

Low popularity rating

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.

François Bayrou wants to form a team that is tight and as open as possible. He wants it to include significant personalities, from the left as well as the right and the center, in order to respond to the emergencies facing the country, particularly budgetary ones.

A first hiccup

François 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 south-west of which he intends to remain mayor, in the midst of a crisis in Mayotte. He has a historically low popularity rating for taking office, with 66% of French people saying they are dissatisfied, according to a barometer published this Sunday.

Among the names mentioned for his government are those of former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne and former Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. Among those leaving, Catherine Vautrin (Territories), Rachida Dati (Culture) and Sébastien Lecornu (Armies) should remain, probably in the same portfolios.

“Dismayed”

On the left, former socialist minister François Rebsamen, 73, announced that he was “ready” to join the government, praising his long-standing “relationship of trust” with François Bayrou. But almost nothing filters out other personalities, particularly from the left.

The Socialist Party formally refused to participate in the government, and its leader Olivier Faure left Matignon disappointed on Thursday, saying he was “dismayed by the poverty of what (was) proposed”. He did not rule out censoring the new Prime Minister.

Pension reform revised?

François Bayrou accepted the principle of opening a discussion to review the highly contested reform raising the retirement age to 64 years. But without suspension of this reform, the socialists consider the gesture insufficient.

Saturday evening, the leader of the Les Républicains (LR) deputies, Laurent Wauquiez, confirmed to his troops that he was moving towards participation by the right-wing party in the government (but without participating himself). François Bayrou announced his intention to maintain the very right-wing Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau.

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