White smoke at Matignon. On Saturday, September 21, Emmanuel Macron officially named the 39 members of Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government. A composition markedly right-wing, the result of a fragile coalition between the central bloc and Les Républicains, in an attempt to close the most serious political crisis of the Fifth Republic.
Although the presidential camp remains in the majority in the list of members of this government, their number, age, gender or political past mark a notable difference with the outgoing team.
The biggest government in ten years
First notable fact: this government is larger than that of Gabriel Attal. There are 39 ministers and secretaries of state, compared to 35 for the previous team. It is even the largest since the election of Emmanuel Macron in 2017. As noted by the geopolitical review The Great Continent“we have to go until the second Ayrault government (2012-2014) to find an executive with more members.”
More specifically, Michel Barnier’s team has 19 full ministersincluding the Budget and Overseas Ministries attached to the Prime Minister, compared to 14 for the Attal government. This new team therefore stands out for the number of portfolios that are not placed under the authority of another minister. For the rest, the numbers of delegate ministers (15) and secretaries of state (5) are almost identical to the previous government (16 and 5 members, respectively).
A majority of “newbie” ministers
The new government includes 17 representatives from the presidential camp, 10 from the right-wing party Les Républicains, 2 from the Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories (Liot) group and only one minister from the left.
In detail, the central bloc is represented by 12 members of the Renaissance party, 3 members of the MoDem and 2 of the Horizons party. Despite everything, no heavyweight from the former presidential majority remains after the departures of Gérald Darmanin (Interior) and Bruno Le Maire (Economy). The Macronists are for the most part little known, with the possible exception of Sébastien Lecornu or Agnès Pannier-Runacher, both already present in the last two governments. In the end, only 6 members of the government have already been ministers since the election of Emmanuel Macron.
For their part, Les Républicains appear particularly well represented in terms of the number of portfolios (10) given their representation in the Assembly (47 seats out of 577). More generally, Michel Barnier’s team is mainly composed of personalities making their debut in a government: including the Prime Minister, only 9 ministers had already held ministerial functions before being appointed this Saturday.
A gender-balanced and older government
Finally, other criteria mark notable changes between this government and the previous one. First, the place of women. At first glance, the teams of Gabriel Attal and Michel Barnier are both strictly equal: while the Attal team had 18 women and 17 men, the Barnier government is made up of 20 women and 19 men. On the other hand, men remain more numerous at the head of full-time ministries: there are 11 men compared to only 8 women. However, this ratio is up compared to the Attal government, which was made up of 9 men and 5 women full-time ministers.
Another notable element: the average age of government members increases between the Attal and Barnier teams. It goes from 48 to 52 years. And this, while Michel Barnier had already succeeded the youngest Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic (34 years) by beating another age record (73 years). The head of government is also the oldest member of his team, while this title previously went to the former Minister of National Education, Nicole Belloubet (68 years).
The age of the youngest members of the government remains the same, however: 33. The Minister of the Economy, Antoine Armand, and the government spokesperson, Maud Bregeon, are now the youngest members of the Barnier group, after the former Minister for Relations with Parliament, Marie Lebec.