Michel Barnier’s governing team will be approved by President Emmanuel Macron by Sunday at the latest before it becomes official.
France is on the cusp of announcing a new government, two-and-a-half months after a fragmented snap legislative election result sent parliament into a political deadlock.
Prime Minister Michel Barnier was spotted heading to the Élysée Palace on Thursday evening to present his 38-member cabinet to President Emmanuel Macron after weeks of struggling to put one together.
The prime minister’s office, Matignon, confirmed that a government deal has been struck. Macron must now approve the cabinet before it becomes official, but the final rubber stamp is unlikely to come on Friday due to some “final adjustments” being made, Matignon added.
Final approval is expected by Sunday at the latest, however.
Barnier himself was a contentious pick for prime minister, with Macron drawing ire from across the political spectrum when he appointed the former Brexit negotiator to the second-highest office in the land.
With parliament now fairly evenly split between left-wing, centrist and far-right MPs, it was unclear as to where Barnier, himself a member of the conservative Les Républicains, would get his support and who would be willing to make concessions to support him, especially given the tough political choices that the incoming government will inevitably have to make.
Despite the hung parliament, in which the left-wing alliance came out on top, the new government seems poised to lurch further right than Macron’s centrist government has been until now. Reports abound that most of the posts will be taken by centrists and centre-right politicians, with a smattering of leftist MPs.
Domestic French outlets report that Senator Bruno Retailleau, of Les Républicains, has been named interior minister, while Jean-Noel Barrot, of the centre-right Democratic Movement, will be bumped up from secretary of state for European affairs to foreign minister.
Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu will reportedly remain in post, with Antoine Armand moving to the finance ministry. Both belong to Macron’s Renaissance party.
Reacting to the rumours of who is in the government, members of France’s left have denounced a “betrayal” of July’s vote.
“Why was there a dissolution if it was only to get more or less the same people, even more to the right?” former Socialist President François Hollande said on French radio, adding that the results of the legislative elections should constitute a significant change in government.
“We are in an ultra-minority government of those who lost the elections,” said Socialist Philippe Brun, also on the radio, who reportedly turned down a ministerial post. He added that the few left-wing ministers who may have been appointed were just an attempt by Barnier “to give the impression of a government of national unity”.
But regardless of who ultimately makes the cut, the government’s footing will be precarious and it will have to get to work from day one: Barnier has already hinted that he would be open to raising taxes to deal with France’s ailing finances, which he said earlier in the week are in a “very serious” situation.
Such tax hikes would likely prove unpopular among the centrist Macronists and those further to the right. Combined with a disgruntled left-wing unhappy with the presumed makeup of the government, they could join forces to push through a vote of no confidence in Barnier if he’s not careful.
