Barely born to try to end a long political crisis, Michel Barnier’s government, a fragile alliance between the Macronists and the right, is already under fire from the critics of the left and the National Rally, who hold its survival in their hands. The first official steps of the 39 new ministers will not take place until Monday. A welcome breakfast will be held at 8 am at Matignon, before transfers of power scheduled between 10 am and 1 pm. Then a Council of Ministers is scheduled for 3 pm at the Elysée around Emmanuel Macron.
Key information to remember
⇒ Employers ask the government to “get to work”
⇒ François Hollande pleads for the censure of the Barnier government
⇒ A first Council of Ministers will take place on Monday at 3 p.m. at the Elysée
François Hollande pleads for the censure of the Barnier government
The Corrèze MP and former President of the Republic François Hollande said again this Sunday that he was in favour of censuring Michel Barnier’s government, presented on Saturday evening. “We need to censure and a socialist motion of censure seems to me to be the right solution to have as many parliamentarians as possible who agree with it,” he said on France Bleu Limousin, in unison with the rest of the left, which is calling for censure of this government, which it finds too right-wing.
For the former socialist president, the dissolution of the National Assembly by the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron led to “the same thing as in the past, but with an even more right-wing presence in the government, and to take painful measures for our fellow citizens”. The new government “is a fragile government”, where “there are no heavyweights”, and which “holds its survival to the National Rally”, he listed. Concerning the new Minister of Justice, Didier Migaud, a former socialist deputy who left the PS in 2010, François Holland believes that “he is no longer a personality that can be considered left-wing”.
Employers ask government to “get to work”
Employers’ organisations welcomed the appointment of a new government after a long wait on Saturday, calling on it to “get to work” and wishing it “economic success”. On the social network X, the president of Medef, Patrick Martin, considered that with “a government formed, a general policy statement from Prime Minister Michel Barnier to come, all the conditions (were) now met to restart”. “France needs it”, insisted the leader of the leading employers’ organisation.
His counterpart François Asselin, president of the Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CPME), was pleased that “the executive finally formed” could “get to work”. “The stakes are considerable for our country and the task immense in a political context far from simple”, added, in a message sent to AFP, the head of the second employers’ organization in France. “We wish the government success knowing that this success in economic matters cannot be achieved without that of the commercial sector composed of 90% SMEs”, concluded François Asselin.
Greenpeace denounces an “old world” government
Michel Barnier’s government “already seems locked into the outdated logic of the old world” in the face of the climate emergency, deplores the environmental NGO Greenpeace. “We need radical and ambitious actions to face the climate and social crises,” urges its director general, Jean-François Julliard, quoted in a press release. “It is not with half-measures that we will reduce greenhouse gas emissions or protect the most vulnerable,” he adds.
According to Greenpeace, “the choice of Annie Genevard as Minister of Agriculture suggests the worst, given her limited experience on these issues and her few positions on the subject as a member of parliament for Les Républicains”. “With Agnès Pannier-Runacher as Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention, we are promised a nuclear obsession as an ecological compass”, the NGO also laments. The Director General of WWF France, Véronique Andrieux, said she was “expectant about (Agnès Pannier-Runacher’s) vision for the environment and biodiversity”.
For Antoine Armand, excluding certain tax increases “automatically” would “not be responsible”
The new Minister of Economy and Finance, Antoine Armand, said in an interview on Saturday JDD that “automatically excluding certain exceptional and targeted levies would not be responsible” given the state of French public finances. Promising that the middle classes would be “supported”, he also refused to make tax increases a “doctrine”, while at the same time calling for “reducing public spending and making it more efficient” to generate the billions of euros of savings needed to restore public accounts.
The presidential camp in force, the Republicans well off
Emmanuel Macron’s party has the lion’s share of full-time ministries: Catherine Vautrin (Territories), Anne Genetet (National Education), Sébastien Lecornu (Armed Forces), Agnès Pannier-Runacher (Ecological Transition), Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet (Labor), Guillaume Kasbarian (Civil Service) and Antoine Armand (Economy). No heavyweight from the former presidential majority remains after the departures of Gérald Darmanin (Interior) and Bruno Le Maire (Economy). The Macronists can also rely on Rachida Dati for Culture and Gil Avérous for Sports, both from the LR, but counted as various right-wingers.
The centrists of François Bayrou (MoDem) and the Horizons party of former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (Horizons) obtained three and two ministries respectively. If the MoDem lost one post compared to the previous government, it notably won Foreign Affairs (Jean-Noël Barrot) and Health (Geneviève Darrieussecq). Horizons obtained Solidarity, Autonomy and Equality between Women and Men (Paul Christophe), as well as the Social and Solidarity Economy (Marie-Agnès Poussier-Winsback)
The Republicans, who also have Michel Barnier at Matignon, appear particularly well represented in terms of the number of portfolios (10) given their representation in the Assembly (47 seats out of 577). They notably won the Interior, entrusted to the very conservative Bruno Retailleau, one of the rare heavyweights in the government. But this is their only sovereign ministry. LR was however entrusted with Agriculture (Annie Genevard) and Overseas Territories (François-Noël Buffet).
With the New Popular Front clearly refusing to participate in this government, Michel Barnier was only able to rally one leader from the left, the former socialist MP Didier Migaud, who was appointed Minister of Justice. He left the PS in 2010.