Prime Minister Michel Barnier announced French President Emmanuel Macron's new government, which will mark a continuation of the establishment cabinet that has effectively shut both leftists and populists out of power after months of deadlock.
More than two months after surprise parliamentary elections that saw a three-way power struggle in the National Assembly and no single faction secure a majority, newly installed Prime Minister Barnier announced a Macron-leaning government on Saturday night.
Despite receiving fewer votes than the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition and Marine Le Pen's populist Rally National (RN) party, Macron's faction won the most key positions in the new Barnier government, with the president's allies Antoine Armand and Laurent Saint-Martin becoming the new economy minister and budget minister respectively. Figaro Reports.
The key post of minister for Europe and foreign affairs on the Quai d'Orsay will go to Jean-Noël Barrot, a staunch supporter of President Macron and a prince of the EU, who will replace Stéphane Séjourné, who has been nominated to be the next Brussels censorship chief.
Meanwhile, Sébastien Lecornu, another Macron supporter and hardliner on the Ukraine war, has been nominated to stay on as defense minister and is likely to be one of the few to remain.
But Barnier managed to secure one of the top posts, with Senate Republican (LR) leader Bruno Littaillote being sworn in as France's next interior minister, responsible for immigration control, set to take up his post at Beauveau Palace.
Senator Littelot is seen as a more hardline figure on immigration than his predecessor, Gérard Darmanin, so his election was clearly intended to appeal to the populist right, but he is also at odds with the Rally National and has sensationally joined the current controversial attempted coup by Rally National leader Éric Ciotti for supporting an alliance with Le Pen during the parliamentary elections.
The announcement of a Macron-led government was heavily criticised by the leadership of the National Rally, which had been heading for victory in France after a landslide victory in the spring's European Parliament elections, but was thwarted by Macron's last-minute strategic voting pact with the left-leaning New Popular Front to thwart a populist takeover.
“The French people expressed twice in the last elections their desire to break away from seven years of abandonment and failure of Macronism, yet this evening we are faced with a reshuffled government that is far removed from the desire for change and replacement expressed last June,” Le Pen said. said Saturday.
“This interim government is the result of a quagmire created by unnatural alliances formed during the parliamentary elections. I will continue to prepare France to recover and make the great changes we want,” the former presidential candidate added.
Jordan Bardella, Le Pen's deputy and a rising populist Added He warned that the new government “does not at all reflect the aspirations of the French people” and predicts an “outdated political vision”, and that the Macron administration as a whole is approaching “the end of its power”.
There is also likely to be no political honeymoon period for former Brexit negotiator Barnier, whose new government took a record 67 days to announce and will immediately be plunged into a budget battle as the country tries to tackle a looming debt crisis.
Meanwhile, radical socialist Jean-Luc Mélenchon's far-left party Insubordinate France has launched impeachment proceedings against President Macron for choosing Barnier as prime minister over the candidate recommended by the New Popular Front.
