Michel Barnier finally has his government. But behind the scenes, Emmanuel Macron is hardly convinced by his Prime Minister’s choices.
What are 16 days when you have waited three and a half months after a dissolution, eleven weeks after legislative elections, or 67 days after the resignation of a government? After having tried many approaches and having been refused many times, Michel Barnier finally gave birth, in pain, to a government whose 39 ministers’ names were listed by Alexis Kohler this Saturday evening, from the Elysée. France therefore finally has a new fully-fledged government.
Among the main ministers, the very conservative leader of the LR senators, Bruno Retailleau, is a strong man. For the rest, it is a succession of already known faces and returnees: Rachida Dati in Culture, Sébastien Lecornu in the Armed Forces, Agnès Pannier-Runacher in Ecology, Jean-Noël Barrot in Foreign Affairs, Catherine Vautrin in Territories, but also the former socialist Didier Migaud in Justice, or Geneviève Darrieussecq, several times a minister of Macron, returned from Landes as Minister of Health.
The balance is clearly leaning to the right, with the appointment of several LR elected officials such as Annie Genevard to Agriculture, Othman Nasrou, a close friend of Valérie Pécresse, as Secretary of State for Citizenship, or Patrick Hetzel, himself close to Bruno Retailleau, to Higher Education. A few surprises too, with the arrival of former MP Anne Genetet rue de Grenelle, to National Education, a sector that she seems never to have approached from near or far…
“This was what was asked of Barnier”
The formation of this government has not been a long, quiet river, far from it. For several days, it was necessary to deal with the demands of the conservative fringe LR, while sparing the centrist forces of the outgoing majority, not to mention the allies of the MoDem and Horizons, who all wanted to weigh as much as possible. Even the head of state is said to have put a last-minute pressure on Michel Barnier this Saturday afternoon. While he had publicly urged his allies on Friday to “help” the Prime Minister form his government, Emmanuel Macron would have, behind the scenes, delayed the process in the final stretch, finding that there were “not enough loyalists from the first hour”, according to one of his confidants, quoted by Le Parisien.
Did he get satisfaction? Not really. if we believe the newspaper. Except for Sébastien Lecornu in the Armed Forces, the President had to resolve to let the right and the loyalists of Gabriel Attal, with whom he has been on bad terms since the dissolution, take the lion’s share. Result: in private, the President would not hide his contempt for the decisions made by Michel Barnier. According to a close friend, he considers that the head of government was content to line up “second-rates”, without “any big fish”. Le Parisien even writes that the head of state is “annoyed” not to find any heavyweights, which “was nevertheless what was asked of Barnier”, indicates a source.
Worse, while Emmanuel Macron himself intervened at the end of the week to remove LR senator Laurence Garnier, considered unapproachable by the Macronists because of her opposition to marriage for all and the constitutionalization of abortion, she came back through the window this Saturday. If she does not inherit the Family portfolio as initially planned, she will be in charge of Consumer Affairs with a Macronist, Marc Ferracci. Which “displeases” Macron, again according to the newspaper Francilien.