After several days of negotiations and multiple delays, the Elysée Palace announced this Monday the composition of the new French Government. The Executive led by the new Prime Minister François Bayrou is part of the continuity of that of his predecessor, Michel Barnier, with a large presence of conservative and Macronist ministers, with heavyweights such as the former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, in addition to some figures from the center-left like the former socialist minister François Rebsamen.
Among the big surprises of the announcement is the appointment of Manuel Valls, former French Prime Minister and head of the Ciudadanos list to the Barcelona City Council in 2019, whom Bayrou recovers for the Overseas portfolio.
Bayrou had declared his willingness to present the Government “during the weekend”. However, several French media outlets evoked “blocking points” in recent days that forced the announcement to be postponed. On the one hand, negotiations with the leaders of the conservative party Los Republicanos (LR) were extended to ensure their continuity in the Government; on the other, differences between Bayrou and President Emmanuel Macron regarding the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
The French Constitution establishes that the members of the Government are appointed by the president, at the proposal of the prime minister. This implies that he can only appoint people selected by the head of the Executive, but also that all of them need the approval of the head of State.
Delays in the appointment of the new Government fuel speculation about disagreements between the prime minister and the president. As revealed by Agence France-Presse, Macron and Bayrou spoke twice by phone on Sunday, before a long interview at the Elysee Palace late in the afternoon.
Despite being allies since 2017, the French media assume that Macron would have preferred a member of his party as head of government, but that Bayrou managed to prevail by threatening to withdraw from the centrist coalition, which would have further weakened the party. French president.
The right retains Interior
As expected, several LR ministers appointed by Michel Barnier maintain their portfolios in the new Executive. Among them, the Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, representative of the most conservative wing of the party and with postulates close to the extreme right. Retailleau has repeated on several occasions his desire to present a new immigration law as soon as possible. His presence complicated the participation of representatives of the progressive New Popular Front coalition, which is directly opposed to Retailleau’s positions on immigration and security.
Her party colleagues, Rachida Dati (Minister of Culture who was part of the last two governments) and Annie Genevard (Agriculture) also retain their position.
The composition of the Government confirms that, for the moment, François Bayrou has been unable to expand the parliamentary alliance beyond the parties that supported Michel Barnier: the formations of the central bloc (Renaissance, Horizons and MoDem), in addition to the conservatives of LR.
Important figures from Macron’s party (Renaissance) return to the Government, occupying several of the most important ministries. Among them the former Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who will hold the Justice portfolio, and the former Prime Minister Borne, who will be in charge of Education. Likewise, several Macronists who already occupied key ministries such as Foreign Affairs (Jean-Noël Barrot), Defense (Sébastien Lecornu) or Labor (Catherine Vautrin) remain in their positions.
Since his appointment to Matignon on December 13, Bayrou had repeated his desire to form an Executive “of general interest”, as broad as possible. But despite having offered portfolios to several members of the alliance of progressive forces, the prime minister has not managed to convince relevant figures from the left-wing parties to participate in the Executive.
The general secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure, had warned over the last week that they would remain in the opposition and that any member of the PS who agreed to enter the Executive would be expelled.
The presence of former socialist minister François Rebsamen in the Government does not seem enough to change that dynamic. Rebsamen had distanced himself from the PS and in 2022 had supported Macron in his re-election campaign. Rebsamen will be responsible for Local Authorities and Planning.
On Sunday in an interview in The Tribune He sent a message to his former colleagues in the Socialist Party. “This is not the time for empty-chair politics or electoral calculations. I call on all those who put the interests of the country before their personal interests to participate in the government, or at least, to join a broad union of general interest, as the prime minister has proposed.”
Threat of censure motion
After some signs of openness from socialists, communists and environmentalists, who showed their willingness to negotiate a “non-censorship agreement” with Bayrou, the progressive parties are once again raising the threat of the motion that could bring down their Government. Especially after a week of conversations that they have unanimously described as “disappointing.”
Without any tangible progress, the new prime minister must now find ground of agreement, in his method of governance or in the budgets – which he hopes to present in the National Assembly in February – if he is to have any hope of continuity. A strategy similar to that put into practice by Michel Barnier, who was unable to escape the motion of censure after presenting his first budget text before a very fragmented National Assembly, in which none of the three main blocs has a majority.
“The same causes will produce the same effects,” Jean-Luc Mélenchon predicted a few days ago, in an interview in Le Parisien. “François Bayrou will not survive the winter.” His party, France Insoumise, has already announced the presentation of a first motion of censure in January if the prime minister does not request the confidence of the deputies after his general policy declaration on the 14th.
#French #Prime #Minister #recovers #Manuel #Valls #Government #macronist #heavyweights #rightwing #figures
