Consultations on the formation of the new French government began on the morning of Monday, December 16th. The new prime minister, centrist François Bayrou, chose to first meet with the representatives of the Rassemblement National (RN), Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen, who head the largest group of MPs in the National Assembly. An agreement seems to be emerging on the issue of changing the voting system to achieve proportional representation.
L’Express magazine reveals that shortly before Emmanuel Macron appointed Bayrou as prime minister, a decisive telephone conversation took place between the future head of government and Marine Le Pen, leader of the RN parliamentary group.
At the head of a group of 142 MPs with its allies, the RN has, since the June elections, been essential to form a majority on any bill or, a contrario, to topple the government in the event of a no-confidence procedure. This party, traditionally confined to the fringes of French political life, has therefore become indispensable and intends to make full use of its power: without it, the unseating of Michel Barnier’s previous government would not have been possible.
Bayrou is well aware of this: on Wednesday, December 11th, as he was already in line to be appointed as prime minister without anything being confirmed, he took to the phone with Le Pen to gauge her state of mind towards him. Bayrou and Le Pen agree on one key issue: the need to introduce proportional representation by changing the voting system for legislative elections to create a national assembly that better reflects the real state of the country. The July 2024 elections produced a politically explosive situation: the RN gathered 11 million voters alone, while the coalition of left-wing parties won 7 million—and yet, this coalition won a slightly larger number of deputies in the National Assembly by virtue of the majority bonus that favoured alliances on the left and the famous ‘republican front’.
According to L’Express, the content of the agreement between Bayrou and Le Pen was as follows: “rapid proportional representation versus no censure.” Michel Barnier had sketched out a step in this direction in his exchanges with Le Pen, but to no avail, since this did not prevent the vote of censure made possible by the addition of RN votes.
The results of the PM’s meeting with Bardella and Le Pen on the morning of December 16th at the Hôtel de Matignon, the prime minister’s residence, were satisfactory, according to the main parties concerned. While the RN was left out of the discussions on Macron’s choice of prime minister, Bayrou was keen to receive its representatives first, by virtue of their status as the largest party in the national assembly. Marine Le Pen explained after the meeting that the RN had been “listened to,” before adding that it was “too early to say whether it had been heard” and that she was “too experienced in politics to be reassured by a single conversation.” In any case, “the method is more positive than what I have seen so far,” she told reporters. The RN is calling for a budget that is not “unfair to the French.”
Bayrou is conducting consultations to form a new government and talks with political parties to find out what support he can hope to have in the coming weeks in the national assembly. The La France Insoumise (LFI) party refused to attend. On the Left, the socialists responded positively to the invitation, but first secretary Olivier Faure expressed scepticism at the end of his meeting: “If it’s to have the same policy, we’ll censure him in the same way,” he concluded.
Bayrou announced that he wanted to form a government of “personalities” and “experience.” For the moment, no names of possible ministers have been divulged.
