Reframed by the head of state, François Bayrou outlined a draft government facing Emmanuel Macron during a meeting on Tuesday evening, but the casting of ministers has not yet been decided. A first series of appointments could take place in the coming days.
The essentials
- No appointment of a government, but new consultations on François Bayrou’s program this Wednesday, December 18. The Prime Minister receives Eric Ciotti as president of the Union of Rights and ally of the National Rally, the executives of the Radical Party, the boss of the Macronist senators and the president of the RDSE group in the Senate.
- The Prime Minister wants to show that he is making progress in the casting of his executive and delivered a “start-up architecture” of the government to Emmanuel Macron during a meeting on Tuesday evening, reports Politico. So much so that a possible agenda is would be drawn up with a two-stage appointment: that of the main ministers before Christmas and that of the others at the start of next year.
- A first group of ministers could therefore be known in the “coming days” as François Bayrou said before the National Assembly yesterday. It remains to be seen who would be part of it: several outgoing Macronist or right-wing ministers could remain, such as Bruno Retailleau, Rachida Dati, Sébastien Lecornu or Jean-Noël Barrot. Names of former ministers are also put forward like Elisabeth Borne or Gérald Darmanin. Fewer options come from the left.
- François Bayrou would like to see as many ministers from the right as from the left in his government at the rate of one third each, the last third would return to the central bloc. But cohabitation promises to be difficult. The left refuses to participate in a government, while LR elected officials consider participation only if a “substantive project” suits them.
Live
10:33 – What about an appointment of Dupond-Moretti to the Bayrou government?
Several former ministers from previous governments under Emmanuel Macron are mentioned as options before the appointment of the future executive. Who is Eric Dupont-Moretti, former Minister of Justice? The lawyer says he “hopes with all his heart” the success of François Bayrou as Prime Minister on France Inter, but when asked if he wanted to become a minister again he replied “no”. However, he specifies: “I’m not saying ‘finished’ but I’m saying no for the moment.” The tenor of the bar and former Minister of Justice has not yet been mentioned among the rumors.
10:25 – Retailleau wants to stay inside, but on his own terms
Bruno Retailleau is ready to return to the Ministry of the Interior within the Bayrou government, but he will only extend his lease on the condition of being “able to lead the policy that the majority of French people want, that is to say “restore authority, firmness and public order in the streets and at the borders”, he said on BFMTV this Wednesday morning. Otherwise he will not join François Bayrou’s government: “I made a promise to myself: not to betray myself and not to deceive the French.”
The resigning minister also indicated that he did not know whether François Bayrou intended to suggest that he stay or move to another ministry. It could be set this morning since the tenant of Place Beauvau has been speaking with the Prime Minister since 9:30 this morning.
10:14 – Bayrou presented a government “architecture” to Macron
François Bayrou spoke twice with Emmanuel Macron yesterday, after the presidential palace said it was ready to receive proposals the same day. The interview was apparently not an opportunity to draw up a list of ministers, but François Bayrou presented “start-up architecture” for the future government reports Politico. Difficult to know more about this architecture, but if it is a question of the distribution of forces the media and LR sources have already mentioned the Prime Minister’s project to appoint a third of ministers from or close to the right, a a third of ministers representing the central bloc and a third of ministers coming from the left.
10:02 – The path to a two-stage appointment of ministers
François Bayrou hopes to appoint a government in “the coming days” as he reiterated to the National Assembly on Tuesday afternoon, notably before the end of the year. And Politico understands that the schedule for appointments has become clearer and will be done in two stages: the main ministers could be appointed before Christmas and the others at the start of 2025. If the schedule is confirmed, there is less than a week left in Prime Minister to make proposals.
17/12/24 – 11:07 p.m. – François Bayrou attracts the wrath of the opposition after his blunder on Mayotte
END OF LIVE – In the middle of his first speech at the National Assembly, François Bayrou suggested that Mayotte was outside the national territory. Questioned by the ecologist Steevy Gustave on his presence in Pau and not in Mayotte, the Prime Minister clumsily defended himself: “The President of the Republic announced that he would go to Mayotte. It is not customary for the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic leave the national territory at the same time.” Enough to arouse the ire of part of the opposition. “What a shame! Mr. Bayrou: Mayotte is France,” reacted the rebellious Clémence Guetté.
To go further
The appointment of a new Prime Minister will not change anything, even if a new stage is launched. The political crisis that France has been going through since this summer is not ready to end. The resignation of Michel Barnier, imposed by the censorship of the government voted by the deputies on December 4, came to remind those who had forgotten that the executive has always been very fragile. Emmanuel Macron’s choice to appoint Michel Barnier to Matignon, after a failed dissolution, gave the keys to the National Rally. Without the implicit support or laissez-faire of the RN, the next government will not last much longer. The government is facing political and arithmetic reality: its line is very much in the minority in the National Assembly, the deputies of the opposition parties are more numerous than those of the “common base” parties.
Emmanuel Macron had also prepared for the fall of Michel Barnier’s government at the end of November, based on numerous indiscretions. He had started testing the names of potential replacements even before the censorship. The choice of François Bayrou ultimately gives the signal that he remains on the same line as before: for him, it is the capacity to ensure stability which is the key, by working with the parties of the “republican arc”, without suffer the censorship of others. In doing so, Emmanuel Macron reconnects with this tacit deal with Marine Le Pen which led to the fall of the Barnier government.
A “disinterested and pluralist” Bayrou government?
François Bayrou has a precise idea of the strategy that seems to him to be the right one in this period of political crisis with a National Assembly lacking a sufficient majority to govern alone. The centrist has been pleading for months for the formation of a “disinterested, pluralist and coherent government” made up of “personalities of character”, without specifying the political sides which could or could not take part in it, as Le Figaro recalls. A vision that matches that proposed by Emmanuel Macron.
François Bayrou’s government should unsurprisingly include members of the MoDem and Macronists, but it could also open up to the right and the left on the condition that these forces agree to join the executive. Something difficult to imagine for the left: the PS and the Ecologists refused to participate in a government led by a Prime Minister foreign to the left. On the other hand, the appointment of right-wing ministers, or even the maintenance of certain resigned LR ministers such as Sébastien Lecornu or Bruno Retailleau, are mentioned. The LR party did not object to joining a Bayrou government, but refused to participate in an executive in which socialists would be appointed. During his handover speech with Michel Barnier last Friday on the steps of Matignon, the new Prime Minister did not give the slightest clue about the composition of his government. We will still have to wait. Maybe before Christmas? A schedule “difficult to keep”, according to a relative of the new tenant of Matignon, as indicated in the columns of Politico, Monday December 16, 2024.