French President Emmanuel Macron was on Friday, September 20, weighing a long-awaited new government which includes fresh faces in almost all key posts and marks a shift to the right. The full line-up won't be announced Friday but is due by Sunday following "final fine-tuning", Prime Minister Michel Barnier's office said, after two-and-a-half months of deadlock created by inconclusive legislative elections.
While there appeared to be no major surprises or big-name entrants into the cabinet, there are set to be new foreign, economy and interior ministers, with only the defense minister remaining unchanged among the key offices of state.
Barnier is proposing Europe Minister Jean-Noël Barrot as foreign minister, a source close to Macron's political faction, asking not to be named, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). The move would be a major promotion for the 41-year-old, whose slick media appearances have impressed observers, but boosting France's presence on the international stage could pose a challenge.
Bruno Retailleau, who heads the faction of the right-wing Les Républicains (LR) in France's Sénat, is to take on the interior ministry. Landing the interior ministry, which oversees the police and domestic security, would be seen as a major success for the right.
And another meteoric rise will likely see Antoine Armand, the 33-year-old head of parliament's economic affairs commission installed as economy minister. One key person said to be staying on is Defence Minister Sébastien Lecornu who is believed to enjoy a close and trusting relationship with Macron.
Tense lunch
Barnier was at the Elysée Palace late Thursday to discuss the nominations with Macron. Macron could seek to veto Barnier's proposals but doing so would cause immense tensions with his premier at this stage. Sources added that names still need to be vetted to ensure they have no conflicts of interest before entering government, as is customary. But Macron "will not censor any name", said a source close to him asking not to be named.
Among the more junior positions, a last-minute controversy arose over the proposed appointment of LR senator Laurence Garnier as family minister. Macron's centrist allies strongly protested her nomination to the family brief, with Garnier having opposed both gay marriage and the inscription of the right to abortion in the constitution.
There had been tensions between centrist Macron and Barnier, who comes from the LR, over the balance of the government, notably at a lunch earlier this week that reports said was far from cordial. Barnier reportedly had even raised the possibility of resigning just days into the job. The tensions were then resolved on Thursday.
'Very serious'
Politics in France has been deadlocked since the June-July snap legislative elections left it with a hung parliament. Barnier, the European Union's former top Brexit negotiator and a right-winger, was appointed earlier this month by Macron in an attempt to breach the impasse.
Key posts were vacant with Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire stepping down after occupying his post since Macron came to power in 2017 and Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné tapped by Macron to be France's new EU commissioner.
However, there seems to be no place in the cabinet for the ambitious Gérald Darmanin, interior minister since 2020, who has reportedly long coveted the job of foreign minister.
The 73-year-old Barnier has already faced a raft of challenges since taking office. He warned on Wednesday that France's budgetary situation, which has seen Paris placed on a formal procedure for violating EU budgetary rules, was "very serious."
Macron had hoped to reassert his relative majority in parliament by calling for the elections in late June and early July, but the plan backfired. The left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire alliance nabbed the most seats in the Assemblée Nationale but does not have a working majority. Macron's centrist faction is now the second-largest bloc. The far right is third, but the far-right Rassemblement National emerged from the election as the single largest party.