Macron has appointed François Bayrou as the new prime minister of France. Who is he? – National
President of France Emmanuel Macron called his main ally Francois Bayrou As the fourth prime minister of 2024 on Friday, however, the extent of the challenge facing the veteran centrist was immediately apparent as the Socialist Party refused to join his coalition government.
Bayrou, 73, gave a sober assessment of his ability to tame the hung parliament that ousted his predecessor Michel Barnier last week.
“It’s a long road, everybody knows that,” he said. “I’m not the first to go the long way.”
France’s festering political mess has raised doubts about whether Macron will complete a second term in office until 2027.
As Donald Trump moves to the White House and prepares for new elections after the collapse of Germany’s ruling coalition, he has raised France’s borrowing costs and created a power vacuum at the heart of Europe.
The founder of the Democratic Movement (MoDem) party, which has been part of Macron’s ruling coalition since 2017, Bayrou has run for president three times, drawing on his rural roots as the longtime mayor of the southwestern city of Pau.
His immediate priority will be passing special legislation to replace the 2024 budget, with a tougher fight against the austerity-tightening 2025 legislation early next year.
Parliamentary backlash over the 2025 bill led to Barnier’s downfall, and on Friday left-wing leaders announced they could also seek to oust Bayrou if he uses special constitutional powers to pass a budget against parliament.
Get daily National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic and current affairs headlines delivered to your inbox once a day.
Bayrou’s closeness to the deeply unpopular Macron could also be a weakness.
The president of the Socialist Party, with whom Macron sympathized during his search for prime minister, accused him of ignoring the demands of the left-wing leader in favor of the “risky” Macronista.
“Thus, we will not enter the government and remain in the opposition,” said Boris Vallaud, leader of the Socialist parliamentary bloc.
The reaction to Byron’s left-wing appointment will be worrying for Macron, who is likely to live every day at the mercy of the president’s opponents for the foreseeable future.
Macron will hope Bayrou can stave off a no-confidence vote at least until July, when France can hold new parliamentary elections.
Leaders of the far-left France Unbowed party said they would try to remove Bayrou immediately, while leaders of other left-wing parties took a more nuanced approach.
Greens leader Marine Tondelier also said she would support a no-confidence motion if the prime minister ignores their concerns about taxes and pensions.
Communist leader Fabien Roussel said his party would fire against Bayrou and decide separately if he promised not to use the legislation.
Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally (RN) party, said he would not seek an immediate no-confidence motion, while RN leader Marine Le Pen said Bayrou should listen to the opposition’s budget requests.
A real test on the 2025 budget
Barnier’s budget bill, which aims to save 60 billion euros ($63 billion) to appease investors increasingly worried about France’s 6% deficit, was seen as too stingy by the far right and left. The government’s inability to find a way out of the jam has further increased France’s borrowing costs.
XTB Research Director Kathleen Brooks said Bayrou’s appointment would not have a major impact on French bonds. However, he said the CAC 40 French stock index .FCHI had underperformed German stocks by a three-decade margin.
“With France still in political turmoil, narrowing the gap is an uphill battle even with a new prime minister,” he said.
Macron appointed Bayroux as justice minister in 2017, but he resigned just weeks later amid an investigation into his party’s fraudulent hiring of parliamentary aides. He was acquitted of fraud charges this year.
– Report by Dominique Vidalon; Additional reporting by Michelle Rose and Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Gabriel Stargardter; Edited by Richard Lough, Angus MacSwan and Ros Russell
English