End of year celebrations under high tension for the government. At the foot of the tree, burning issues are waiting to be processed. This Tuesday, December 24, less than 24 hours after the announcement of the composition of the Bayrou government, the newly appointed ministers took up their functions. After the celebrations, the team in power will have little respite. First council of ministers, “special law” for the reconstruction of Mayotte, general policy speech, adoption of the 2025 budget… L’Express takes stock of the upcoming deadlines.
January 3: the first Council of Ministers
The appointment is made. Friday January 3 will mark the first Council of Ministers of the new government, after more than a month of absence (the last dating from December 11 with Michel Barnier). At 10 a.m., François Bayrou, accompanied by his government team, will meet Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée. The opportunity for the Head of State to set the tone for his relations with his new Prime Minister. The latter should, for his part, clarify his intentions for Matignon.
January 14: the general policy speech
Eleven days later, on January 14, 2025, the Prime Minister will go to the National Assembly to deliver, in front of the 577 deputies, his general policy declaration. A republican tradition when a new government takes office. François Bayrou will detail his team’s roadmap as well as its main future objectives.
During his handover speech with the resigning Prime Minister Michel Barnier on December 13, the mayor of Pau began to outline his future policy. “I will not conceal anything, I will leave nothing untreated and unanswered. All the problems that you have indicated, which relate to public spending, which relate to the fractures in French society, I will try to resolve them […] taking into account each of the groups”, he pledged, adding that the “budgetary situation” would not be left “unaddressed”. Many challenges therefore await the government.
And the “special law” for the reconstruction of the department of Mayotte could well be the first on the list. This law, used for the work on Notre-Dame Cathedral and the organization of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, allows the government to take planning measures and free itself from legal obligations to meet deadlines. If parliamentary work is suspended until January 13, the current exceptional context could give rise to an early resumption, allowing the examination of such a law.
January 16: a first motion of censure?
The left is waiting for him around the corner. If François Bayrou does not request a vote of confidence during his general policy speech, which he has announced that he does not want to do, France Insoumise will table a motion of censure. A vote which would probably take place “on January 16, 48 hours after his general policy speech”, said party leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon At Parisian.
The National Rally, which had supported the Barnier government’s motion of censure, for its part, made it known that this time it did not intend to repeat it. For the Socialist Party, the decision has not been made. Olivier Faure, first secretary of the party, deplored this Tuesday morning “the vagueness” of François Bayrou’s comments the day before, and declared that he saw no reason not to censor for the moment.
Seeking a vote of confidence is not obligatory for the Prime Minister. The predecessors of François Bayrou, Elisabeth Borne, Gabriel Attal and Michel Barnier, who also did not have an absolute majority, had not done so. “I am convinced that the action that I define before you and the government team will ensure that we will not be censored,” the centrist leader reassured himself on Monday a few hours after the presentation of his government.
Mid-February: adoption of the 2025 budget?
This will be the main challenge for the Bayrou government: passing a budget for 2025 in the National Assembly, where on December 4 his predecessor Michel Barnier was overthrown by a motion of censure. An adoption that the Prime Minister hopes for “in mid-February”, as he repeated Monday evening on BFMTV. Already discussing this period on France 2 on Thursday December 19, he added however that he was not “sure of getting there”. Whatever happens, the parliamentary shuttle responsible for examining the budget should end by February 24, the date on which parliamentary work will be suspended.