Almost a week after his appointment, the new French prime minister, François Bayrouinvited on Thursday representatives of all political forces, with the exception of the radical left and the extreme rightand offered them to join his Government, saying that he was willing to “resume” the pension reform. Bayrou confident of appointing members of his cabinet “before Christmas”according to several of the participants in this Thursday’s meeting at the Matignon Palace, the headquarters of the Executive. Once again, the deadlines are not met, since he promised that there would be a Government this week.
According to government sources, the prime minister has put two proposals on the table to try to convince his interlocutors: on the one hand, he has made a “public offer of participation” in the cabinet addressed to all the parties present at the table; and on the other hand, it has proposed reopening a dialogue for “nine months” with social agents and political forces “without suspending” the controversy pension reform adopted in 2023 through article 49.3 (avoiding the vote in the National Assembly), which the left and the extreme right of National Group (RN, in its French acronym) want to repeal.
However, there is no guarantee that Bayrou’s proposals will change the lines, since their reception was cold among some of the participants. Upon leaving the meeting, the leader of the French Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, refused to join the Executive, said he was “very dissatisfied” with the negotiations and declared that, for the moment, the prime minister “has not given any reason so as not to censure him.” For his part, the communist deputy Stéphane Peu made it a condition for entering the Government that he renounce the use of article 49.3, something that Bayrou rejected. Both formations considered that the prime minister “does not have the form of a statesman” and is a “seller of the Fourth [República]”.
The centrist succeeded Michel Barnierousted after only three months in office by a historic motion of censure voted for by deputies from the left and extreme right. Bayrou thus became the sixth head of Government since the first election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and the fourth in 2024, an instability of the Executive that France has not experienced for decades.
Appointed on Friday, at the end of a tense morning in Macron’s office, Bayrou has since received political leaders and parliamentarians in official or more informal meetings.
His first week in Matignon was marked above all by criticism for going to the municipal council of Pau, a city of which he intends to remain mayor, on the presidential plane in the middle of the crisis in the Mayotte archipelago, devastated by the passage of a cyclone, and for participating in the emergency meeting via videoconference.
Strong demands
Without a majority in the National Assembly, the centrist, who for decades has advocated for a Government that brings together diverse sensitivities, is currently facing the strong demands of the Republicans and increasing attempts at censorship by the left.
The format of the meeting called this Thursday is reminiscent of the one held nine days ago around Macron in the Elysée, where scenarios of non-censorship of the opposition were discussed.
The prime minister only has 36% satisfaction, according to an Ifop survey for Sud Radio made public this Thursday, compared to 52% and 53% for his predecessors, Michel Barnier and Gabriel Attal, when they started in Matignon.
