“The President of the Republic appointed Mr. François Bayrou Prime Minister, and tasked him with forming a Government.” On Friday December 13, the news came in a press release from the Elysée: after the hypothesis Bernard Cazeneuve, Jean-Yves Le Drian or Sébastien Lecornu, it was finally the mayor of Pau who was appointed head of government. But a week to the day after winning Matignon, François Bayrou does not seem in a hurry to announce the names of those who will accompany him during his mandate.
He communicated very little information regarding the future government. Except that it should be appointed “before Christmas” or even “during the weekend”, according to the promise of François Bayrou made this Thursday, December 19 on France 2, asking party leaders, excluding RN and LFI, a response on their participation in the government by Friday “at midday”. If this wait may seem relatively short compared to that of the resigning ministers (Michel Barnier had waited sixteen days before appointing his team), what is it really like in relation to all the governments of the Fifth Republic? L’Express takes stock.
Announcements within twenty-four hours
For the 45 previous governments of the Fifth Republic, the tradition was one of efficiency. 19 Prime Ministers chose to announce the composition of their team the day after their appointment, according to Franceinfo. Among which are Bernard Cazeneuve, Manuel Valls, Raymond Barre and Michel Debré. Six of them, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, Alain Juppé, Pierre Bérégovoy, Jacques Chirac, Pierre Mauroy and Georges Pompidou even spoke on the day of their appointment. On average, the time between the appointment of the Prime Minister and the announcement of the composition of his government is around two days. A figure already much lower than that concerning François Bayrou’s team (seven days for the moment).
Efficiency… with a few exceptions. Since the Fifth Republic, certain Prime Ministers have understood that the Constitution authorized them to have as much time as they wanted to compose their government. Starting with Georges Pompidou. Reappointed as Prime Minister by Charles de Gaulle on November 28, 1962, he detailed the composition of his team on December 6, 1962, eight days later. A record until 2024.
Records under Emmanuel Macron
2024. A politically charged year. But above all, a year during which the prize for the slowest Prime Minister to compose his government was awarded. Without much surprise, Michel Barnier took the first step of the podium, after a long wait of sixteen days. Appointed to Matignon by Emmanuel Macron on September 5, 2024, the former chief negotiator of the European Union waited until September 21 to announce his team.
Since his first five-year term in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has broken all the records of the Fifth Republic. On average, its Prime Ministers form their government in 4.8 days, while this figure was two days under Charles de Gaulle, one day under Jacques Chirac and even 0.7 days under Nicolas Sarkozy, according to West France.
As a reminder, the two governments of Edouard Philippe and that of Gabriel Attal took two days to be composed. Three days for Jean Castex, and one more for Elisabeth Borne. All that remains to be seen is whether François Bayrou will dare to challenge Michel Barnier’s record.