A final Council of Ministers then a new head of government. Emmanuel Macron promised to appoint by Thursday, and potentially as early as this Wednesday, December 10, Michel Barnier’s successor at Matignon, who will be responsible for negotiating at least an agreement to avoid censorship.
Information to remember:
⇒ Emmanuel Macron promised to appoint a new Prime Minister by Thursday
⇒ Final council of ministers for the Barnier government
⇒ Sébastien Lecornu, François Bayrou, Catherine Vautrin still in the running for Matignon
Last council of ministers for the Barnier government
The day after an unprecedented meeting around the president of party leaders outside the LFI and RN, Michel Barnier and his government meet this Wednesday morning one last time at the Elysée – an extremely rare occurrence for a resigning team. On the menu for this Council of Ministers: a draft “special law” to ensure the continuity of the State from January. The censorship of Michel Barnier last week, barely three months after his appointment, effectively left the 2025 budget in suspense.
This “temporary law”, the adoption of which there is little doubt, will be examined on Monday in the National Assembly, then on December 18 in the Senate. The text is reduced to its simplest expression to authorize the government to raise taxes and spend credits on the basis of the budget for the current year.
Lecornu, Bayrou, Vautrin, still in the running
The names circulating to take over from Michel Barnier come from the central bloc, like that of François Bayrou, received again Tuesday morning at the Elysée. Macronist ministers Sébastien Lecornu and Catherine Vautrin are also cited, as are former minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who declined according to Macronist sources, or right-wing officials such as the mayor of Troyes François Baroin.
A new Prime Minister will be named by Thursday, according to Emmanuel Macron
Tuesday, in front of the leaders of the communists, socialists, ecologists, the presidential camp and the Les Républicains party, Emmanuel Macron promised to appoint his next Prime Minister “within 48 hours”. Several relatives are counting on a choice this Wednesday evening. It is up to the new tenant of Matignon to negotiate with these parties a participation in the government, or their support for certain texts including the budget, or even, at a minimum, a “non-censorship” agreement. Only then will he put together his team.
If he was able to note the absence of appetite for a “government of national unity”, the president hopes to have found a form of consensus towards a non-censorship agreement which would allow the future government to survive longer than that, ephemeral, by Michel Barnier.