Michel Barnier in the final straight? The Prime Minister is conducting his “final” consultations this Thursday, September 19, despite tensions at the top with Emmanuel Macron to form his government. The services of Matignon announced this Thursday that Michel Barnier wants a team to be formed “rapidly”.
Key information to remember
⇒ The political parties likely to join the government were received at Matignon this afternoon
⇒ Barnier wants the “rapid” formation of a government
⇒ 2025 Budget: Matignon says it has sent the documents to the Finance Committees
Barnier plans government of 38 ministers
Michel Barnier, who will be received early Thursday evening by Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée, is considering a government of 38 ministers, including 16 full-time ministers, Gabriel Attal reported to Macronist deputies, following a meeting at Matignon.
In search of a difficult balance in the formation of his government, Michel Barnier would appoint among the full ministers seven Macronists, three from the Republicans, two MoDem, one Horizons and one UDI, specified Gabriel Attal, according to several participants in a report made by the former head of government.
Also during this meeting, according to Gabriel Attal, Prime Minister Michel Barnier affirmed that he did not envisage “tax increases on the middle classes and working French people”. This commitment on taxation is “vital for us”, declared Gabriel Attal, according to participants. Macronist deputies have warned several times in recent days that they would not participate in a government planning tax increases despite the slippage of debt and deficits.
This lunch that gets people talking in view of 2027, the government according to Sarkozy…
Dupond-Moretti who had prepared his move; Le Maire’s regrets… Discover here our political indiscreet of the week.
The meeting of political forces at Matignon is over
A decisive meeting between Michel Barnier and the political forces likely to participate in his government ended after almost two hours on Thursday, with the departure of the Macronists and the centrists. Marc Fesneau and Maud Gatel (MoDem), Franck Riester (Renaissance party) and Gabriel Attal (Ensemble pour la République group) were the first to leave Matignon, followed by Hervé Morin (Les Centristes), Hervé Marseille (UDI), Edouard Philippe (Horizons) and Laurent Hénart (Radical Party).
Decisive meeting begins at Matignon with political parties
White smoke in sight? Michel Barnier has been chairing a meeting of political forces likely to participate in his government since 3pm at Matignon.
Hervé Morin, president of the Centrists party, who arrived first, hoped that “all this would succeed”. After him, Marc Fesneau and Maud Gatel (MoDem), Hervé Marseille (UDI), Franck Riester (Renaissance party), Laurent Wauquiez and Bruno Retailleau (Les Républicains), Gabriel Attal (Ensemble pour la République group) and Edouard Philippe (Horizons) arrived around 3pm.
Attal wants to question Barnier on the “broad outlines” of his policy
Laurent Wauquiez and Bruno Retailleau (Les Républicains) are going to Matignon this Thursday afternoon to meet Michel Barnier, as well as Marc Fesneau (MoDem), Gabriel Attal, Edouard Philippe (Horizons) and Franck Riester (Renaissance). In a message to the deputy of his group, Gabriel Attal said he wanted to ask the Prime Minister “what are the broad outlines of the action he intends to lead with his future government, and how its architecture will embody the republican union that our country needs so much”. A telephone conversation is planned with the Liot elected representatives, currently gathered in Corsica.
Political parties invited to Matignon at 3 p.m.
The Prime Minister invited the political parties likely to participate in a government this Thursday at 3pm, with a view to the “rapid” formation of his team, Matignon announced. “The Prime Minister is calling the representatives of the political parties he has consulted so far to Matignon at 3pm, for a meeting with a view to the rapid formation of a government,” according to his services. Michel Barnier has so far consulted the representatives of the presidential camp (Renaissance, Horizons and MoDem), the Liot group and the Republicans.
A “final day of consultations”
Michel Barnier is holding his “last day of consultations” on Thursday with a view to forming a government, receiving separately the President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet and the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher, Matignon announced.
“The Prime Minister received this morning the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, then the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher. He is continuing his last day of consultations,” his services wrote to the press.
2025 Budget: Matignon says it has sent the documents to the Finance Committees
Matignon indicated this Thursday that it had transmitted to the Finance Committees of the National Assembly and the Senate “the budgetary documents drawn up by the resigning government” with a view to the draft Finance Bill for 2025.
These documents, sent to the presidents and general rapporteurs of the two chambers, had been vigorously requested for several days by these parliamentarians, in particular those of the National Assembly who went to Matignon and Bercy on Tuesday and Wednesday to obtain them, without success. The presidency of the Finance Committee of the Assembly confirmed to AFP that it had received documents, without specifying whether they satisfied the request.
Friction at the top
Emmanuel Macron, who claims not to want to intervene in the composition of the government, received Michel Barnier on Tuesday and again on Wednesday. According to the stories that are filtering through, their lunch on Tuesday went badly. A close friend of the head of state recalled that the task assigned to his Prime Minister was “to move towards national unity and respect the balances”. But “the account is not there” for the president, according to a senior member of his camp. He is said to have indicated during this meeting that the right could not have two big positions like Bercy and Beauvau, only one or the other, annoying his interlocutor, reports a senior member of LR.
This was “only a first list, the basis for a negotiation”, the spokesperson for the LR deputies Vincent Jeanbrun tempered Thursday on BFMTV/RMC. “On the names mentioned” as well as “on the balance of sensitivities, this in no way represents the government project desired” by Michel Barnier, Matignon was keen to clarify Wednesday evening.