Michel Barnier, the most short-lived Prime Minister of the Fifth Republic – L’Express

Michel Barnier the most short lived Prime Minister of the Fifth

It had taken painful weeks to be trained. 89 days later, the government of Michel Barnier already fell after the motion of censure voted by the National Rally and the New Popular Front. And in the process wins the title of shortest government of the Fifth Republic. In comparison, the average length of a government is around two years. At 73, Michel Barnier was the oldest head of government of the Fifth Republic. His style embodied an old world that he voluntarily cultivated, as opposed to the “new world” of the Macronists. Faced with the heckling of deputies on Tuesday, he regretted that the National Assembly had “changed a lot”.

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Michel Barnier thus dethrones Bernard Cazeneuve and his government (December 2016 to May 2017), fifth and last appointed under François Hollande, whose short life – although twice as long as that of the Barnier government – with 160 days of existence, took end at the same time as the mandate of the socialist president. So why reshuffle so close to the end? The formation of this government was precipitated by the resignation of Manuel Valls, the predecessor of Bernard Cazeneuve, who had announced his desire to take part in the presidential race, shortly after François Hollande announced not to run again. Bernard Cazeneuve, then Minister of the Interior, was propelled to the head of a government whose composition was almost entirely the same as the previous one.

Anticipated legislative elections and political machismo

Much more recent, it is Michel Barnier’s predecessor, Gabriel Attal, who holds third place. Installed from January to September 2024, the Attal government ended in the crash of the early legislative elections in July. If the resignation of his government was accepted by Emmanuel Macron on July 16, he remained in place for several months thereafter to manage current affairs, including the Paris Olympic Games in August. It also makes it the longest period between the resignation of one government and the appointment of the next since World War II.

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The government of Edith Cresson, the first woman to hold the post of Prime Minister, had also not exceeded a year (323 days). Edith Cresson was initially supported by President Mitterrand during his first eight months at the head of the government – he considered that it would take time for her to confront French political machismo. But the President of the Republic changes his position when he understands that the socialist group in the Assembly no longer supports it. Worse, the rout of the Socialist Party in the regional elections of March 1992 pushed certain party leaders (such as the mayor of Nantes at the time and future Prime Minister himself, Jean-Marc Ayrault) to publicly demand the departure of Edith Cresson. , a first. François Mitterrand will regretfully ask for his resignation on April 2, and will appoint Pierre Bérégovoy in his place. The short life of the Cresson government marks a real feminization of positions, with six women ministers in his team.

The adventures of Charles de Gaulle’s Prime Ministers

The government of Maurice Couve de Murville, 6th of the Fifth Republic from July 1968 to June 1969, despite its short existence, had the singularity of having served under two different Presidents of the Republic. Following the resignation of Charles de Gaulle, the government of Maurice Couve de Murville remained in place to ensure current affairs under the interim of Alain Poher. The Prime Minister will present the resignation of his government after 345 days following the presidential election of 1969, which will mark the arrival of Georges Pompidou as president.

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Well before his election as President of the Republic, Georges Pompidou was the last Prime Minister whose government fell under the censorship of the Assembly, in 1962. To regain control of political life, including the control seemed to escape him, Charles de Gaulle submitted to the French at the time, by referendum, a major reform of the Constitution aimed at establishing direct universal suffrage in the presidential election. The choice of a referendum instead of a traditional parliamentary debate was seen as an affront by the deputies, who decided in retaliation to bring down the Pompidou government through censorship. Unlike Michel Barnier, who falls today 72 years later, Georges Pompidou has record longevity for a Prime Minister: it was after six years and three months of service under the presidency of Charles de Gaulle that he fell.

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