President Emmanuel Macron appointed this Thursday the Former European Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier as France’s new prime ministerwhose first mission will be to achieve a majority in a divided Parliament that will prevent its rapid censure.
According to the criteria of
Following a meeting between the two at the Elysee Palace in Paris, the French presidency announced in a statement that Macron has tasked Barnier with “forming a unity government” after weeks of “unprecedented” consultations.
“The president made sure that the prime minister and the incoming government would meet the conditions to be as stable as possible” and to gather the greatest possible support in Parliament, the statement said.
French President Emmanuel Macron.
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Macron has triggered a political crisis in France by bringing forward the legislative elections scheduled for 2027 in Junewhich left a National Assembly (lower house) with three main blocs, all far from an absolute majority.
The president made sure that the prime minister and the incoming government would meet the conditions to be as stable as possible.
Although the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP) won the election with 193 seats, the centre-right president refused to name his candidate for prime minister, the economist Lucie Castets, on behalf of the “stability”.
At 73, the several-time minister in France, European commissioner and chief negotiator for the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union could count on with the support of his party, The Republicans (LR) and Macron’s centre-right alliance.
But this would be insufficient in the event of a motion of censure, if both The right-wing National Rally (RN) party and its allies such as the left-wing coalition are voting in favour. These would add up to 335 votes, well above the 289 needed.
His rapid fall would be a setback for Macron, which he justified in the “institutional stability” the lengthy consultations to form a government, almost two months after the political deadlock arising from the legislative elections.
An example of the difficult situation, The government of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, whom Macron has asked to continue through the 2024 Paris Olympics, has been in office for 51 days, a record in France since the end of World War II.
– “Basic problem” –
After almost three weeks of consultations, Macron chose Barnier over former Socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and right-wing regional president Xavier Bertrand after LR had shown itself more flexible about appointing someone from its party.
The traditional right-wing party had rejected since the legislative elections any coalition with a worn-out official alliance to avoid being marked in the face of the presidential election of 2027, in which it will not be able to run. Macron.
Bernard Cazeneuve.
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Now it remains to be seen what his government programme will be. After his fleeting return to French politics in 2021, to participate unsuccessfully in the LR primaries for the 2022 presidential election, he particularly advocated a “moratorium” on immigration.
Marine Le Pen’s far-right party has said it will wait for her general policy speech before deciding whether to censure herThe conditions put forward by the RN are a reform of the electoral system and new legislative elections in 2025.
“We know in the end who decides. “She is called Marine Le Pen,” criticised the leader of the environmentalists Marine Tondelier in the media Franceinfo, denouncing that Macron imposed on his alliance to block any option coming from the NFP.
President Emmanuel Macron and former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.
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In France, the prime minister is appointed by the president and does not need to be confirmed by parliament. But time was running out for Macron, as the future government must present its 2025 budget by October 1 amid a widening deficit.
The new prime minister will have to confirm whether he continues the recommendation of the acting Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, to make cuts of 16 billion euros (17.65 billion dollars).
Macron’s desire to maintain his pension reform, which he imposed by decree in 2023 and which the NFP promised to repeal, also weighed on his choice of prime minister.
“Macron does not want to change his policy” and this is “a fundamental problem”former president and current Socialist MP François Hollande said on TMC on Wednesday, for whom it was up to the Assembly to find a majority for a government.
