Prime Minister Michel Barnier announced the composition of the new French government late on Saturday, September 21st. The team preparing to govern gives pride of place to representatives of the centre-right Les Républicains party (LR) and centrists, with personalities in continuity with the previous government—far from the break with Macronism that had been eagerly awaited since the elections on both the Right and the Left.
The new government comprises 39 ministers, including 19 full ministers and 20 secretaries of state. The negotiations to find the right candidates were intense and difficult, with rumours of a crisis between Barnier and Macron and Barnier’s possible resignation in the absence of an agreement emerging mid-week.
The President of the Republic had given the Prime Minister the task of putting together a team that would “come together to serve the country,” following the results of the legislative elections on July 7th, which brought three political blocs of almost equal numerical importance to the National Assembly, none of which was able to form a solid majority. In practice, the government remains a centrist one, leaning very slightly to the right.
Indeed, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National (RN) is alarmed by the overly Macronist character of a government that in no way represents a break with the previous team. “This ‘new’ government marks the return of Macronism through the back door. What the French people have democratically sanctioned, twice, cannot return through pitiful games of apparatus and political calculations,” denounced Jordan Bardella on X. The RN is all the more critical of this government because it ostensibly rewards members of the LR who refused to form an alliance with the national Right and have made this loudly known—such as Bruno Retailleau and Annie Genevard, the new Minister for Agriculture.
Several ministers from Gabriel Attal’s previous government have been reappointed, either to their previous posts or to new ones. While Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and Justice Minister Éric Dupont-Moretti have given up their posts—the RN had made a casus belli out of the possible reappointment of Dupont-Moretti, its sworn enemy—the Ministers of Culture and the Armed Forces remain in place. Five others who were already there have been given new portfolios, with some surprising choices: for example, the 41-year-old centrist Jean-Noël Barrot, whose experience in a key ministry of state may leave something to be desired, has been appointed to the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs.
Michel Barnier has used his network within the LR party, which provides a contingent of around ten ministers. The most notable newcomer to the government is Bruno Retailleau, the former leader of the LR senators, who has inherited the Interior Ministry. Known for his tough stance on security and immigration during the debates on the immigration law, he was clearly chosen to satisfy the Rassemblement National (RN).
Only one person from the Left has been included in the team, Didier Migaud, who becomes Minister of Justice after having been a senior judge at the Cour des Comptes and having headed the Haute Autorité pour la transparence de la vie publique (High Authority for Transparency in Public Life). He is a socialist with a fairly moderate social-democratic profile.
The reactions of the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition to the new government have been extremely critical. The solitary presence of Didier Migaud, given his profile, is unlikely to satisfy the demands of the coalition, which is denouncing the overall ‘right-wingisation’ of the government. Lucie Castets, the NFP’s self-proclaimed candidate for prime minister, denounced on X a ‘hard right’ government. The presence of Laurence Garnier, secretary of state for consumer spending, who voted against the constitutionalisation of abortion several weeks ago, is strongly denounced by the Left.
The final composition of the government attempts to fulfil two objectives: to send some kind of signals to the right of the Assembly in an attempt to guarantee that the RN will not censure the government, and to allow Emmanuel Macron to remain in control of the game with a centrist staff unlikely to overshadow or oppose him. The next few weeks will tell whether these objectives have indeed been achieved.
“We are not in a cohabitation situation,” Michel Barnier explained on television news on Sunday 22 September—the term referring in French to a situation where the president and the prime minister belong to two different political sides. “The bulk of the parliamentary bloc is made up of MPs and senators who have accompanied the President. There is no majority. What I have tried to do is to build up the most important base in the National Assembly. At the same time, this base will remain open.”
The first council of ministers of this new team is due to be held on Monday, September 23rd at 3 p.m., in the presence of the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic.
