French prime minister takes rightward tilt with new government

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Michel Barnier, France’s new prime minister, picked a conservative senator for the key post of interior minister alongside figures from president Emmanuel Macron’s camp in an effort to forge a stable government that could survive in a hung parliament.

It took the conservative Barnier, the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, more than two weeks of difficult negotiations with the various parties in the National Assembly to come up with a government that he hopes will not fall to a no-confidence vote. The government faces tense budget negotiations that are expected to include unpopular spending cuts. 

Bruno Retailleau, a conservative senator from Barnier’s party known for his hard line on immigration and harsh criticism of Macron, will serve in the key post of interior minister, overseeing police and security. He replaces political heavyweight Gérald Darmanin. 

But centrists from Macron’s party or their allies were selected for key ministries in which the president traditionally holds more sway than the prime minister. The former Europe minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, is being promoted to head of the ministry for foreign affairs, while loyalist Sébastien Lecornu remains in charge at defence and the armies.  

“This is the most rightward-leaning government for more than a decade when Nicolas Sarkozy was president, and Retailleau is the only one real political heavyweight in the cabinet,” said political analyst and journalist Alain Duhamel on BFM TV.

The “real power” will lie in parliament, he added, where the opposition, stretching from the leftist Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) to the far-right led by Marine Le Pen, will hold the fate of the Barnier government in their hands.

A little-known pair of deputies from Macron’s party has been named to serve in the crucial finance and budget ministries. Antoine Armand, a 33-year member of parliament who served on the energy commission, will take the all-important economy, finance and industry job. Another 39-year old lawmaker, Laurent Saint-Martin, will be in charge of the budget and public finances, reporting directly to Barnier. 

Replacing veteran finance minister Bruno Le Maire, the pair have the delicate task of crafting a new budget for 2025 that aims to redress deteriorating public finances with spending cuts.

The talks are expected to be contentious as Macron’s camp seeks to protect his pro-business legacy by holding off the left’s calls for tax hikes. The budget talks must grapple with a public deficit that is already expected to exceed the previous target of 5.1 per cent of GDP this year and reach at least 5.6 per cent.

With Barnier as premier, the cabinet will be operating more independently than at any time in Macron’s term in office. This could lead to tensions as the men hail from different parties and Macron is seeking to protect his legacy and retain his responsibility for defence and international diplomacy.

French politics have been in turmoil since Macron called snap elections in June that delivered a hung parliament where none of the three main blocs held enough seats to have a clear claim to the premiership.

Although Macron’s centrist alliance lost the most seats while the left and far-right expanded their ranks, the president selected Barnier to seal an alliance with the smallest faction, the conservative Les Republicains party that only won 47 seats.

In all, 38 portfolios including junior minister posts have now been allotted, with none going to the left-wing alliance NFP that won the most seats in the assembly. The NFP pushed hard for their own candidate to become prime minister, only to be rejected by Macron. Leftist activists held protests in Paris and elsewhere on Saturday against what they see as Macron’s choice to ignore the left’s election win.

“Why did Macron dissolve parliament if it’s to end up the same lot, just even more to the right?” former Socialist president François Hollande told France Bleu Radio on Friday after the ministerial appointments began to leak. 

Green party leader Marine Tondelier called the Barnier government “indecent” and “shameful” given the NFP’s strong result in the legislative election.

In a social media post on Saturday, Le Pen criticised the cabinet selection as not in keeping with “voters’ desire for change”. She said this would be “a transitional government”, hinting again that her Rassemblement National party could bring down Barnier’s government.

“The fact we did not block the government from the outset does not mean we don’t have the ability, depending on the budget, to back a no-confidence motion if we believe that the highest interests of the French are being trampled on,” Le Pen told Le Parisien newspaper last week.