Since his opponents censored Michel Barnier whom he had appointed to Matignon at the beginning of September, Emmanuel Macron phosphorus, consults, tests. A week and half a dozen names dropped in the press later, “the solution to the crisis, or the maneuver to stop the hemorrhage from which the patient suffers […] his mandate is called François Bayrou”, writes El País. The same one which allowed the former protégé of François Hollande to “win the 2017 presidential election”, specifies the Spanish newspaper, which compares François Bayrou to a “lifeline” supposed to help the head of state “to overcome the storm raging in France.
In Switzerland Time attempts a more original way of presenting this “eternal centrist leader”. Admirer of King Henry IV to the point of having devoted a biography to him in the early 1990s, “perhaps François Bayrou sees a sign on this December 13, the birthday” of the instigator of the Edict of Nantes , evades the Swiss daily which questions: will the three-time candidate for the presidential election and former Minister of National Education in the cohabitation government of Edouard Balladur “also be able to unite in a political France fragmented?”
Bayrou, his resemblance to Barnier, and his proximity to Macron
Abroad, everyone agrees to underline the harshness of the task which awaits the new Prime Minister forced to deal with a “cantankerous lower house”, according to the formula of the New York Times. “Forming a government for François Bayrou and finding a majority to support him will be complicated given that Parliament is divided into three political blocs,” notes the transalpine daily He Post in the wake of their colleagues from Corriere della Sera : “With the far left and far right unwilling to compromise, the country is increasingly divided and the formation of a solid government remains difficult.” Especially since it “inherits the same situation that (Michel) Barnier: an Assembly where it will be difficult to pass reforms or laws”, observe our Spanish colleagues fromEl Mundo.
Some point out in particular his twinning with his predecessor at Matignon, born like him under the Fourth Republic, in 1951. “Not only are the two men from the same generation, but they share the same centrist vision and demonstrate great “open-mindedness when it comes to addressing Marine Le Pen’s National Rally”, argues the conservative British title The Spectator. Same causes, same consequences?
Likely, estimated The Spectatorwhich raises the specter of new censorship. “He already has the left against him and Marine Le Pen is lurking in the background, ready to pounce if she judges that François Bayrou is only the president’s latest puppet.” Because like the leaders of the New Popular Front (NFP), several media do not fail to recall the proximity of the Béarnais with the tenant of the Elysée. “Emmanuel Macron appoints his main ally as Prime Minister of France”, headline in the United States The New York Times.
Dissolution, the eternal burden of the tenant of the Elysée?
The responsibility of the President of the Republic in the political-institutional crisis which is suffocating France is also widely pointed out by the international press. “The situation of recent months is the result of the last legislative elections, during which Parliament was fragmented into three equal blocks”, estimates the Spanish daily El País which underlines the political instability in which France has been mired since last summer: “With four Prime Ministers in 2024, the titans of political crises like Italy pale in comparison.”
Also, our colleagues from Washington Post are they wondering about the future of this country which “alternates periods of chaos and political paralysis since June”, and in particular about the posture that Marine Le Pen will choose to take vis-à-vis this new executive. According to the American daily, “the question of whether she will retain as much power over the next government will depend on the latter’s ability to garner a broader base of support.”
Possible, suggests Time. Because “tolerated, criticized or even rejected on his left, he remains a figure capable of making his detractors less tense”. So, will François Bayrou succeed where Michel Barnier failed? It should be, press El Mundo which crushes a France which is “at a point where it no longer seeks to advance, but to escape the impasse”. The fine observer of French political life and pen of SpectatorGavin Mortimer wishes “Mr. Bayrou” “good luck”.