The first task of the new occupant of Matignon, Michel Barnier, is to form a government. Who will be the next ministers?
“It will not be just a right-wing government as I hear here and there,” declared Michel Barnier, the new Prime Minister, on the 8pm news on TF1 on Friday 6 September. The new tenant could include “left-wing people”, in addition to personalities from “the [sa] political family”. Who does Michel Barnier have in mind? And who would agree to become a minister?
According to BFMTVMichel Barnier could keep some ministers from the previous government. Emmanuel Macron would notably push for at least Rachida Dati to remain in the workforce, as well as Sébastien Lecornu to the Ministry of the Armed Forces, in office since May 2022. Catherine Vautrin and Gérald Darmanin could also be appointed. According to a source close to the president, Gérald Darmanin would be mentioned at Foreign Affairs, details the continuous news channel, even if he had indicated wanting to “leave the government and sit in the Assembly”.
Will members of the National Rally join the government? Indeed, many on the left consider it to be the result of an arrangement with the RN: Marine Le Pen’s party having announced that it would not censor the new Prime Minister a priori, but would wait at least until the general policy speech and judge the government leader’s policy on the facts. According to information from BFMTV, the Prime Minister would not have planned to contact Marine Le Pen to discuss possible appointments within the far-right camp.
Days or weeks before the appointment of the Barnier government?
If the long sequence of the nomination of the Prime Minister is finally over, the political saga promises to be still long. The ministers of the Barnier government will not be appointed immediately. “The Prime Minister is giving himself time to put together his team” confided an advisor to the tenant of Matignon to Politico. The time needed for negotiations, because if on the right several volunteers are easily found according to a Republican executive surveyed by The Parisian, It will be more difficult to find potential ministers on the left. Discussions could also be held with Emmanuel Macron who has the final say in appointing the government: if the Prime Minister proposes, it is the President of the Republic who disposes.
But Michel Barnier “has every intention of forming a government himself and alone”, his entourage told BFMTV. Emmanuel Macron may therefore have more difficulty imposing his casting on the Prime Minister, especially since for the first time he must deal with a head of government who is not from his camp. But the President apparently does not want to interfere according to The Figaro to leave the field open to Michel Barnier, except for the reserved areas of the Elysée such as the Interior or Foreign Affairs. It remains to be seen whether Emmanuel Macron will actually succeed in staying in the background.
Right-wing, Marconi ministers, but not left-wing?
Theoretically, Michel Barnier’s “rally government” should include ministers from different political backgrounds and the Prime Minister plans to receive representatives of the “main political forces present in the chamber” for his first days at Matignon.
It should not be difficult to find Republicans willing to become ministers, while at each reshuffle the right has appeared as a breeding ground for ministers. Michel Barnier could also find volunteers among the resigning ministers formerly from the right, Gérald Darmanin and Rachida Dati in the lead. Other ministers and pure Macronist products would also be inclined to stay in office. But the Prime Minister could be tempted to clean house and renew almost the entire government to assert a change of policy.
Among the potential ministers are also former candidates for Matignon such as Jean-Dominique Senard, the boss of Michelin, or Didier Migaud, the president of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life. But the most political profiles, Bernard Cazeneuve and Xavier Bertrand, have already refused to join the Barnier government, reports The Parisian.
Recruitment will be more difficult on the left. “No PS personality will enter this government” assured Olivier Faure, the party leader, on France Inter. According to LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard, all the forces of the New Popular Front (NFP) will refuse to participate in the Barnier government. But the left-wing ministerial candidates could be sought outside the Assembly and elsewhere than among the NFP supporters. The door also seems to be closing on the RN side as Sébastien Chenu indicated on Europe 1.
A risk of censorship that is a deterrent for ministers?
Michel Barnier may have to be persuasive when faced with certain profiles of potential ministers worried by the fragile stability of the new government. If the Prime Minister is assured of not being censored before his general policy speech, the support of the presidential camp and the RN is not assured in the long term, but conditioned on the policy implemented. The Barnier government could therefore live for several months as if it were only a few weeks. Engaging in it as ministers therefore represents a risk for those who nourish personal ambitions in the long term, both for the heavyweights of the right and those of the former majority. “Who is going to come into this mess? Especially if it is to be removed in three months” thus sums up the Parisian a resigning minister apparently preferring to jump ship.