France: New Old Government Is Born
The government of new Prime Minister François Bayrou includes 19 reappointed ministers, and the French press immediately dubbed it a sort of “Back to the Future” government
On Monday evening (December 23), the Elysee Palace announced the composition of France’s new government, appointed by President Emmanuel Macron and led by Prime Minister François Bayrou (pictured). The executive branch consists of 17 female ministers and the same number of men, said Alexis Kohler, secretary general of the Elysee Palace.
Bayrou said he was “proud” of this “collective with a track record of reconciliation and restoring the confidence of the entire French people” after the chaotic months following President Macron’s decision to dissolve parliament.
Bayrou’s government includes 19 ministers previously approved by the previous leader Michel Barnier, who lost confidence, including Sébastien Lecornu (defense), Jean-Noël Barrot (foreign affairs), Annie Genevard (agriculture), Rachida Dati (culture), Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet (labor and employment), and Valérie Létard (housing).
The French press immediately branded the new-old leadership as a sort of “Back to the Future” (after the famous movie). “This government is the future,” the Prime Minister replied.
As part of the reshuffle, two former prime ministers, Elisabeth Borne and Manuel Valls, will head the education and foreign ministries respectively. Elisabeth Borne will also have “in her ministerial portfolio” the delegation of national education, higher education, and research. Manuel Valls will head the Department of Overseas Territories and will have to deal with an extremely heavy dossier: the emergency situation in Mayotte after the passage of Hurricane Chido (France was in national mourning on December 23) and the mystery of a very tense social situation in New Caledonia.
Three months after leaving the Interior Ministry, Macronian and former “Republican” Gérald Darmanin returns to the government, still in the rank of Minister of State, in charge of justice issues. “Hawk” party “Republicans” (LR, center-right party), known for its tough fight against illegal migrants, Bruno Retailleau, is approved as head of the Ministry of Interior, while Jean-Noël Barrot is assigned to head the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sébastien Lecornu to the Ministry of Armed Forces.
Antoine Armand was replaced by Eric Lombard, a political “outsider” in the Ministry of the Economy, who until now had been director of the Paris Deposit and Loan Fund and number one at the insurance company Generali France. According to the French press, “this is a high-level technical appointment designed to facilitate the rapid passage of the 2025 budget law – theoretically in the first months of the new year – as well as to reassure European partners and restore the confidence of financial markets in France’s disastrous public accounts.” He will be joined by Macronist Amélie de Montchalin, in charge of public accounts, at a time when France is facing one of the worst budget crises in its recent history. Among other economic portfolios, Laurent Marcangeli (from the Horizon Movement) will be in charge of the civil service, and Annie Genevard (LR) will be in charge of agriculture.
Finally, former Socialist Minister François Rebsamen was appointed head of the Department of Spatial Planning and Decentralization. Catherine Vautrin, a close associate of former Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy and sentenced to a year of house arrest, has been appointed head of the large Ministry of Health and Labor.
