PARIS, Sept 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France’s new premier said he hoped to finalise a long-awaited government “before Sunday”, as President Emmanuel Macron weighed a line-up that marks a shift to the right, with left-wingers due to protest on Saturday.
The full line-up, which includes fresh faces in almost all key posts, is due after “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 defence minister remaining unchanged among the key offices of state.
Barnier is proposing Europe Minister Jean-Noel Barrot as foreign minister, a source close to Macron’s political faction said, asking not to be named.
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 The Republicans (LR) in France’s upper house Senate, is to take on the interior ministry, according to several sources.
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 Sebastien Lecornu, who is believed to enjoy a close and trusting relationship with Macron.
Barnier was at the Elysee 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 who asked 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.
Le Monde daily said that Barnier had even raised the possibility of resigning just days into the job. The tensions were then resolved on Thursday.
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 Stephane Sejourne tapped by Macron to be France’s new EU commissioner.
However, there seems to be no place in the cabinet for the ambitious Gerald 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.
A left-wing alliance, which nabbed the most seats in the lower house National Assembly but does not have a working majority, is outraged at the prospect of a right-wing government.
The hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI) and allies are due to join demonstrations on Saturday organised in several cities by student, environmental and feminist groups against Macron and Barnier.
The LFI hopes to “increase popular pressure”, leading party figure Mathilde Panot said, after more than 100,000 left-wing demonstrators protested Barnier’s nomination and Macron’s “power grab” in early September.
Macron’s centrist faction came out as the second largest bloc in the elections.
The far right is third, but the anti-immigration National Rally emerged from the election as the single largest party. — NNN-AGENCIES
