The French Prime Minister, François Bayrourevealed this Monday the composition of his Government, a team in continuity with that of his ill-fated predecessor, Michel Barnierwith heavyweights from the right and Macronism, and with the former socialist Manuel Valls overseas.
The Executive is made up of former ministers and civil servants with whom the prime minister hopes to be able to approve the 2025 budgets and avoid a collapse that worsens the French crisis.
Eric Lombardthe head of the Caisse des Depots, has been chosen as head of Finance and will work closely with Amélie de Montchalinwho will be the Minister of the Budget. Conservative Bruno Retailleau remains Minister of the Interior. They also keep their jobs Jean-Noel Barrot in Outdoors and Sébastien Lecornu in Defense.
The former prime minister Elisabeth Borne takes the reins of the Ministry of Education, while the former Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin will lead the Department of Justice.
In his new duties as Overseas Minister, Valls will be in charge of risk files, such as those of Mayotte, an island in the Indian Ocean devastated this month by a cyclone, and that of New Caledoniain the South Pacific, theater this year of violent clashes with independence movements. Valls, who was prime minister from 2014 to 2016 under the socialist president François Hollandehas since been away from government functions in France although, because he also has Spanish nationality, he tried unsuccessfully in 2019 to be elected. mayor of Barcelona.
Promise fulfilled
After several days of speculation, Bayrou has finally fulfilled his promise to appoint his ministers before the Christmasalthough this Monday France had established a day of official mourning for the damage caused by Cyclone Chido in the overseas department of Mayotte.
For this reason, this morning the Presidency had specified that the announcement would in no case arrive before 6 p.m., without specifying more details, since doing so otherwise would have raised reviews for lack of respect for the inhabitants of Mayotte.
The new Executive follows the same line as that of Bayrou’s predecessor, the conservative Michel Barnierwhich was knocked down by a motion of censure for lacking sufficient parliamentary support, given that the National Assembly is very divided.
Rejection of the socialists
From his first steps, Bayrou tried to attract the socialists so as not to depend on the far right, but the concessions were considered insufficient by this party, which is the most moderate of the majority left alliance in the lower house.
The stability of Bayrou’s Executive sounds a priori just as complicated as that of Barnier, even if he manages to pass his first litmus test, which will be his general policy speech on January 14. That day Bayrou has the possibility of submitting to a vote of confidence, although it is unlikely that he will do so, given the weakness of his support.
If they do not do so, the leftist La Francia Insumisa (LFI) of Jean-Luc Mélenchon has already announced that it will immediately present a motion of censure.
Marine Le Pen’s extreme right has assured that her decision to vote in favor or not of the motion of censure will depend on the political line that Bayrou adopts in her general policy speech, which once again places the French Government in her hands, as It already happened with Barnier’s.
