The French Prime Minister, François Bayrou, revealed this Monday the composition of his Government, a team continuity with respect to that of his ill-fated predecessor, Michel Barnierwith heavyweights from the right and macronism, and with the former socialist Manuel Valls in the Overseas Ministry.
The list of ministers was announced by the Secretary General of the Presidency, Alexis Kohler, at the Elysée Palace, and except for the inclusion of Valls, who only appeared in the pools at the last minute, he confirmed in broad terms the names that had been ringing during the last few days, in which Bayrou tried without success to expand his support.
This is the case of the former Macronist Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, whose performance was above all marked by the controversial approval of the 2023 pension reform and who returns with Bayrou to the Government at the head of the Education portfolio and as number two in the Executive .
The former head of the Interior, Gérarld Darmanin, also returns. heavyweight of the most conservative wing of macronismto take charge of the Ministry of Justice.
The fundamental Economy portfolio was assigned to Éric Lombard, businessman and until now general director of the Caisse des Dépôts, a public financial institution dedicated to activities of general interest for the State and other French territorial entities.
Above all, he will have the difficult task of preparing new austerity budgets for 2025, with the goal of lowering the high French deficit (planned at 6.1% of the Gross Domestic Product for this year), which was the obstacle that precipitated the fall of Barnier’s Executive.
Valls, who was François Hollande’s prime minister and later gave his support to Emmanuel Macron, returns to the front line of French politics with the Overseas portfoliowith responsibility for the reconstruction of the recently devastated department of Mayotte due to a cyclone in the Indian Ocean.
The former Barcelona City Council councilor will also be in charge of the relationship with territories such as New Caledonia, which in the middle of this year experienced a serious social and political crisis.
Although very far from the current socialist party, it is considered a nod to its electorate, as is the inclusion of François Rebsamen, also Hollande’s former minister and distanced from the current leadership, and who will be the new head of Territorial Policy and Decentralization.
Without surprises, Bayrou kept in his position the Minister of the Interior of the previous Government, Bruno Retailleau, a leading figure of the Republicans (conservatives) and close to the far right on issues such as immigration.
The Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, also remained in her position; that of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Noël Barrot; that of Defense, Sébastien Lecornu; that of Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher; that of Labor, Catherine Vautrin; and Agriculture, Annie Genevard.
On the contrary, Bayrou finally ruled out another conservative leader who had strongly suggested taking over Justice, Xavier Bertrand (the president of the Northern region), but who was frontally opposed by the extreme right of Marine Le Pen, who, like that with Barnier will be key to the stability of the Executive.
Among the portfolios that do change hands is Sports, which will be led by Marie Barsacq, who was in charge of managing the legacy of Paris 2024. The right-wing Corsican Laurent Marcangeli also joins, who will take charge of the Public Service .
With these letters, 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.
