The president of France, Emmanuel Macronhas appointed the veteran centrist politician François Bayrou, leader of the Democratic Movement (Modem), as the new prime minister, replacing Michel Barnier.
The National Assembly overthrew the Government of Michel Barnier in a motion of censure voted on December 4 and which had the support of left-wing and far-right groups, in an unprecedented milestone in more than half a century that gave way to a new round of contacts.
Bayrou, 73, will become the fourth head of the Executive so far this year and will replace the conservative Michel Barnier, nine days after the motion of censure that brought down his Government, the country’s most short-lived since the Second World War.
The centrist leader was received early in the morning at the Elysée, where he held a meeting of almost two hours with the president, before his name was announced after noon.
Bayrou, an old acquaintance of French politics, will have the tough job of overcoming political divisions in the National Assembly, divided between the left, slightly in the majority, the Macronists and the extreme right.
His first task will be to appoint a new Government with which to prepare a budget for 2025, the obstacle in which Barnier fell.
With his appointment, Macron makes a bet on the leftmost wing of his alliancein the hope of being able to obtain the indulgence of the socialists.
Although the veteran centrist politician also has a certain benevolence from Marine Le Pen’s extreme right, since he shares with her the aspiration for a more representative electoral system.
Furthermore, as the far-right leader, she was in the dock for the illegal financing of her party with funds from the European Parliament, of which she was acquitted in the first instance due to lack of evidence, but which was appealed by the Prosecutor’s Office.
Bayrou has been minister twice
Bayrou, who has been a minister twice, once in a conservative government in the 90s, and three other presidential candidates (2002, 2007 and 2012), especially in 2007, when he came close to making it to the second round, He abandoned the Elysée race in 2017 in favor of Macron, in whom he saw an embodiment of his aspiration to break down the divisions between the left and the right.
His appointment at the head of the Government, Macron’s sixth in seven years in the Presidency, has been received coldly among the different parties.
While the leftists of La Francia Insumisa (LFI) have announced that they will immediately present a motion of censure, the environmentalists do not seem enthusiastic about the appointment either.
The socialists and communists, however, do not close the door to a legislative agreement, although they do close the door to entering its Executive.
