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French PM names new government, hoping to avoid another no-confidence vote

Centrist François Bayrou had promised a ‘national interest government’ across the middle political ground but ended up leaning to the conservative right

Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

The French prime minister 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 François Bayrou’s government, which includes several familiar faces: the former interior minister Gérald Darmanin has been appointed justice minister; the former prime minister Elisabeth Borne, a technocrat, returns to government as education secretary, while another former prime minister, Manuel Valls – who served under the socialist president François Hollande, has been appointed overseas minister.

Jean-Noël Barrot will remain as foreign secretary, while the right-winger Bruno Retailleau has been reappointed interior minister. Éric Lombard, a former banker, will head up the economy ministry while Sébatien Lecornu stays on in the defence ministry and Rachida Dati as the 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 by Emmanuel Macron 10 days ago – has struggled to find those willing to join his government.

The previous prime minister, Michel Barnier, lasted just 90 days before his administration was toppled by a vote of no confidence.

Bayrou, a centrist, 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 hard-left France Unbowed (LFI). In the end, Bayrou’s administration, like Barnier’s before it, leant to the conservative right. Macron’s government lost its 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.

One of the government’s first tasks will be to draw up a 2025 budget bill and reduce France’s budget deficit, which is expected to reach 6% of gross domestic product by the end of the year, well above the 3% of GDP the European Union requires of member states.

Barnier pushed through a budget bill at the beginning of December using the controversial constitutional clause called the 49.3, but the legislation was dropped after his government lost the no confidence vote.

In a television interview on Thursday evening, Bayrou, leader of the centrist party Democratic Movement (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.

In an interview with BFMTV, Bayrou denied that Le Pen had any influence on his ministerial appointments as claimed by the former minister Xavier Bertrand.

The Socialist party (PS) has described the new government as one “maintained for and by the far right”. Olivier Faure, the secretary general of the PS, said he “couldn’t find a reason not to censure” the government with a no confidence vote.

“We are dismayed by the poverty of what is being proposed,” Faure said. “The prime minister needs to wake up and understand what is at play.”

Valls’ appointment in particular is seen as a “provocation” for the left, but Bayrou said: “He has a little bit of a kamikaze personality. I like a daring personality, those who accept taking risks. He is someone for whom I have esteem.”

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 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, which was recently hit by the worst cyclone 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 Mayotte by Cyclone Chido. The president and the first lady, Brigitte Macron, held a minute silence at the Élysée.

On Monday Bertrand, a veteran conservative, had been tipped for the justice ministry but said 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 said, adding: “Dealing with extremism … is a mistake.”

In an interview with Le Parisien on Friday, the LFI leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said: “François Bayrou won’t last the winter”.

Author: Kim Willsher in Paris

Source: The Guardian

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