The first in a long series… or not. This Friday, January 3, the president brings together at the Elysée the new government of François Bayrou, appointed after the censorship of his predecessor who remained for only three months. This is the centrist’s first Council of Ministers, and the first of the year 2025 for Emmanuel Macron. Like every new year, members of the government will first go to Place Beauvau, at the Ministry of the Interior, for the traditional back-to-school breakfast. Then they will present their wishes on foot at the Elysée at 10:00 a.m.
“Reconciliation, action, stability” are the three wishes formulated by the new Prime Minister François Bayrou, who would like to last in his post more than Michel Barnier, even if like him he is deprived of a majority in the National Assembly and if the balances The policies of his center-right government closely resemble those of the previous team.
François Bayrou will nevertheless bring his heavyweights around the table, such as former Prime Ministers Elisabeth Borne (Education) and Manuel Valls (Overseas), and ministers who have, according to a government source, “a history” with the left , such as Eric Lombard (Economy) or François Rebsamen (Territorial planning).
To prepare for this first meeting of the year as well as the draft budget, which fell with censorship, François Bayrou received several ministers on Thursday and had a long lunch – more than two hours – with President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysée.
Official reunion
This first Council will resemble an official reunion between the two heads of the executive, which experienced great tensions when Emmanuel Macron hesitated to appoint the boss of MoDem, the latter then threatening to break with the head of state.
Remaining in the background under the short tenure of Michel Barnier, a right-wing opponent, the president seemed to put more of his two cents in the work of the government, during his wishes to the French. The new government “must be able to take a path of compromise in order to act”, France must “continue to be attractive”, “work and innovate more”, “continue to create jobs” and “ensure its growth by maintaining its finances,” he urged.
Matignon defends himself from any enmity with the Elysée. François Bayrou, “he is not the man of petty barbs” against the president, supports his entourage. “Michel Barnier was in a standoff,” adds a government source. The mayor of Pau sees it as a relationship of “co-responsibility”. The president has so far refrained from qualifying it.
In addition to the lack of support in the Assembly, the new Prime Minister begins his tenure with a historically low popularity rating, according to the Ifop barometer.Sunday Newspaper published on December 22. His arrival in Matignon was marked by heated controversy when he went to Pau to participate in his city’s municipal council instead of participating in a crisis meeting in Mayotte, devastated by a hurricane the day after his appointment. François Bayrou has since visited the archipelago with five ministers, and announced a battery of measures to put this department, the poorest in France, back on its feet.
“Political moment”
But the “emergency” bill for Mayotte will not appear on the menu of this Council of Ministers, as initially promised. It will be presented next week, even if this postponement should not have an impact on its examination by Parliament, which resumes its activities on January 13. The menu is therefore likely to be light at the Elysée table on Friday, where a defense and national security council will also be held in the morning.
A new government spokesperson, former Les Républicains senator Sophie Primas, will report on these meetings. An exercise repatriated to the Elysée, at the request of François Bayrou, while his predecessor had chosen to relocate it to a building in the Prime Minister’s services. “It’s the installation, the moment will be above all political” summarizes a ministerial source, who judges it “rare” for a government to wonder, from its first meeting, “if it will last”.
The meeting will allow us to understand the broad outlines of the general policy declaration that François Bayrou will deliver to Parliament on January 14. To prepare this speech at the same time as the budget, the Ministers of the Economy and the Budget began to hear the political groups. One of the elected representatives of the majority, consulted, wants “audacity in the absence of confidence”. He is banking on a budget with “fewer savings” than envisaged and “a deal” with the socialists on pensions.