Macron ally François Bayrou appointed new French prime minister

François Bayrou, a veteran centrist and ally of president Emmanuel Macron, has been appointed French prime minister, after last week’s historic vote of no-confidence ended the beleaguered and short-lived minority coalition of the rightwing Michel Barnier.

Taking office, Bayrou said he recognised the serious problem of public debt in France and the need for parliament to agree a budget. He said the task was so mountainous it was like politically climbing the Himalayas. He said he wanted to break down the “glass wall” between politicians and voters who had lost trust. There was a need to reconcile France and fight discrimination, he said during a handover ceremony with his predecessor.
Bayrou, 73, is the leader of the centrist MoDem party and a political heavyweight from south-western France who calls himself a “man of the countryside”. A former education minister, and mayor of the south-western town of Pau, he has been an ally and close confidente to Emmanuel Macron since he swept to power in 2017.

Bayrou is the fourth French prime minister this year as France has struggled with a growing political crisis in a divided parliament. Barnier’s government was ousted last week after only three months in office, and Macron wants to avoid a new government facing the same fate.

Since Macron called an inconclusive snap election in June, the French parliament has been divided between three groups with no absolute majority. A left alliance took the largest number of votes but fell short of an absolute majority; Macron’s centrist grouping suffered losses but is still standing; and the far-right National Rally gained seats but was held back from power by tactical voting from the left and centre.

Those divisions remain and the first task of the new prime minister is to appoint a government that can work with parliament to pass a full budget for 2025.

Thomas Cazeneuve, a centrist MP from Macron’s party, had described Bayrou as an experienced politician who had “the art of compromise”. Gabriel Attal, the former prime minister who currently heads Macron’s party in parliament, said of Bayrou: “At such a difficult moment for France, I know he has the qualities to defend the national interest and built the crucial stability French people want.”
Jordan Bardella, the president of Marine Le Pen’s far-right, anti-immigration National Rally party, said his party would not immediately back a no-confidence vote in the new government. But he said: “This new prime minister must understand that he has no majority in parliament”. Bardella said his party still had “red lines” on the budget and the new prime minister must talk to all political groups. “The ball is in François Bayrou’s court,” he said.

The Socialist party wrote to Bayrou laying down conditions for not joining a no-confidence vote against him. The party said he must undertake not to push through laws without a parliament vote. Socialists said they would not accept any government positions.

Bayrou, a political veteran, had raised hackles on both the left – who say he will continue Macron’s policies - and on the right, where he is personally disliked by the influential former president Nicolas Sarkozy, whom he ran against in the 2007 presidential race.