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Centrist Francois Bayrou named as France’s new prime minister after Michel Barnier’s resignation

4 hours ago
Centrist Francois Bayrou named as France's new prime minister after Michel Barnier's resignation

Francois Bayrou is the new prime minister of France following Michel Barnier’s resignation.

The centrist politician met President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace early this morning.

The 73-year-old is a crucial partner in Macron’s centrist alliance and has been a well-known figure in French politics for decades.

Image:
Emmanuel Macron and Francois Bayrou. Pic: Reuters

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What to know about France’s new Prime Minister?

President Macron’s office said in a statement that Mr Bayrou “has been charged with forming a new government”.

The French government collapsed last week after Mr Barnier lost a vote of no confidence that was prompted by budget disputes.

Mr Barnier decided to use special powers to force a social security budget through the lower house of parliament without a final vote.

A last-minute concession was not enough to win support from the hard-right National Rally (RN).

It was the first time a French government had lost a confidence vote since 1962, and Mr Barnier subsequently tendered his resignation.

He was appointed in September and has become the shortest-serving prime minister in France’s modern Republic, lasting just 90 days in the job.

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier delivers a speech during a debate on two motions of no-confidence against the French government. Pic Reuters
Image:
Michel Barnier lost a vote of no confidence. Pic: Reuters

Mr Barnier was appointed following surprise elections called by President Macron earlier this year, which led to shock results which left the government and parliament in limbo.

The left-wing Popular Front alliance won the most seats – 193 – but it was far from the 289 needed for a majority.

Infighting among that alliance, which consists of seven parties, resulted in it being unable to agree on a candidate for prime minister.

Few expect new PM to last long after Barnier’s tough tenure

Francois Bayrou, a former minister who has run three times for president and started his own political party, has been named as the new French prime minister.

He will start the job immediately, with the job of bringing some calm to the nation’s volatile parliament. He faces a job that is, at best, imposing and, at worst, impossible. He will have to work with President Emmanuel Macron, while also finding common ground between a parliament that is split between politicians from the far left and far right, some of whom loathe the president and will do whatever it takes to undermine him.

Bayrou will also have to persuade a fractious, angry parliament to support a budget at a time when the nation’s public finances are under scrutiny. His predecessor lasted just three months in the job – few expect Bayrou to be in for a long stint.

Although from different parties, Bayrou is a long-standing ally of President Macron. He was the justice minister in the first government after Macron’s election, but then had to resign after being accused of fraud. He was acquitted of those charges earlier this year.

Bayrou, who is 73 years old, leads the Democratic Movement, which he founded in 2007. He has made three unsuccessful runs at the presidency – in 2002, 2007 and 2012.

His rise to the job of prime minister comes as part of the fallout from the summer, when Macron called fresh national elections. The result was a National Assembly that was essentially split between Left, Right and Centre parties, creating gridlock between politicians who could find few areas of consensus. It took two months for Macron to find a candidate for prime minister, Michel Barnier, who seemed palatable to all sides.

Instead, Barnier’s tenure was a clear warning of how tough the job is, and what Bayrou will have to manage.

Read the full piece by Adam Parsons on France’s new prime minister.

Mr Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance, which came second in the election, built a loose coalition with right-wing politicians, in particular the Republicans, of which Mr Barnier was a member and who the far-right National Rally had said they could work with.

But both the Popular Front and National Rally came together to bring down Mr Barnier last week.

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Because his party does not have a majority, Mr Bayrou’s cabinet will be forced to rely on moderate politicians from the left and the right to be able to stay in power. Some conservatives are also expected to be part of the new government.

Mr Bayrou is expected to put forward his list of ministers in the coming days, but will likely face the same existential difficulties as Mr Barnier in steering legislation through a hung parliament made up of three warring blocs.

Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally party, said they would not be calling for an immediate no-confidence motion against Mr Bayrou.

President Macron has vowed to stay in office until the end of his term in 2027 despite mounting pressure on the 46-year-old to quit.

He previously claimed that far-right and left-wing politicians had united in an “anti-Republican front” and added: “I won’t shoulder other people’s irresponsibility.”

Mr Macron will hope the new prime minister can stave off no-confidence votes until at least July, when France will be able to hold a new parliamentary election.

The current political crisis has lifted French borrowing costs and left a power vacuum in the heart of Europe, as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.