French prime minister François Bayrou has announced his new government – the country’s fourth since the beginning of the year – in the hope his administration can see off another vote of no confidence from a bitterly divided parliament.
There is a mix of old and new in the latest government, which includes several familiar faces: former interior minister Gérald Darmanin has been appointed justice minister; former prime minister Elisabeth Borne, a technocrat, returns to government as education secretary while another prime minister Manuel Valls, who served under the socialist president François Hollande, has been appointed overseas minister.
Foreign secretary Jean-Noël Barrot will remain in his post, while right-winger Bruno Retailleau has been reappointed interior minister. Business leader Éric Lombard, a former banker, will head up the economy ministry while Sébatien Lecornu remains at the defence ministry and Rachida Dati as culture minister.
With many leading political figures looking forward to the 2027 presidential elections and reluctant to gamble their chances on a government that is likely to fall within weeks or be paralysed until a new general election can be held next summer, Bayrou –appointed PM by Emmanuel Macron ten days ago – has struggled to find those willing to join his government.
The previous PM, Michel Barnier, lasted just 90 days before his administration was toppled by a vote of no confidence.
Centrist Bayrou had promised to form a “national interest government” across the middle political ground, excluding Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) and the far-left France Unbowed (LFI). Macron’s government lost his parliamentary majority after he called a snap election in June after the far right made historic gains in the European elections.
The move, however, backfired leaving the French Assemblée Nationale divided into three roughly equal groups – the left, centre and right – none of which has an absolute majority.
In a television interview on Thursday evening, Bayrou, leader of the centrist party MoDem, said he hoped to present his government’s new budget by mid-February, adding that he would conduct “the widest possible dialogue” beforehand. He promised not to use the controversial constitutional article 49.3 to push through legislation without a debate unless he was “completely blocked”. He said he was not in favour of new taxes on businesses but understood the country’s ballooning public deficit had to be addressed with spending cuts.
The French parliament is in recess until 13 January. Bayrou has said the first council of ministers will be held on 3 January and he will announce his government’s programme the on 14 January.
LFI has said it will lodge a motion of no confidence following Bayrou’s declaration, which the Assemblée Nationale will vote on within 48 hours. If it succeeds the government will fall again.
Macron spent Thursday and Friday on Mayotte, located near Madagascar off the coast of south-eastern Africa, France’s poorest region. Chido is the worst cyclone to hit the island in 90 years killing at least 35 people and injuring another 2,500, 78 seriously. He then travelled to Djibouti and Ethiopia returning to Paris on Sunday leaving his new PM struggling to find a consensus administration. Macron declared Monday a day of national mourning after the deaths and devastation caused to the French Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte by Cyclone Chido. The president and the first lady, Brigitte Macron, held a minute silence at the Elysée.
On Monday, the veteran conservative Xavier Bertrand had been tipped for the justice ministry but says he was told RN had vetoed his appointment. As a result he said he had turned down other ministerial positions as he “refused to participate in a French government formed with the backing of Marine Le Pen”.
“Accepting under these conditions would have been a denial of my values, my commitment and my combat’, he explains. He added: “dealing with extremism … is a mistake.”
In an interview with Le Parisien on Friday, the LN leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said: “François Bayrou won’t last the winter”.