President Franceand Emmanuel Macron appointed Francois Bayrou as Prime Minister and entrusted him with the task of forming a government – he informed the Elysée Palace in a release released on Friday. The erstwhile government had to step down as a consequence of a vote of distrust in parliament.
The 73-year-old Bayrou, founder of the center organization MoDem and Macro's political ally, was listed in fresh days by the media among the most likely candidates for Prime Minister. He will be the 4th head of government since the 2022 presidential election, which began the second word of the current chief of state, and the second since the parliamentary election in the summertime of 2024.
Prior to Bayrou, a hard task of forming a government that will not be cancelled as a consequence of a vote of distrust, like the cabinet of his predecessor Michel Barnier. In fresh days, Macron has consulted the political parties represented in the parliament to gain their neutrality – i.e. to guarantee that they refrain from another vote of distrust. The talks were not highly left-wing. Francea Untimed (LFI) or Right-wing National Unity (RN). The head of the Parliamentary faction LFI Mathilde Panot announced shortly after the appointment of Bayrou that her organization would vote for the vote of distrust.
RN head Jordan Bardella stated that his organization does not presently have specified plans, but "the fresh Prime Minister must realize that there is no majority in parliament". As he added, the RN maintains its ‘red lines’ (i.e. the conditions on which fulfilment of the RN depends on refraining from voting against the government).
Fabien Roussel, head of the Communist Party, expressed his willingness to cooperate with Bayrou, which belongs to the opposition on the left side of the political scene – the fresh People's Front (NFP). However, he stressed that the condition is that the fresh government should not hotel to the mechanics provided for in Article 49.3 of the Constitution Franceand, that is, adopting laws without voting in parliament.
A precedence for the Bayrou government after its emergence will be the adoption of a peculiar law allowing the application of the budget from the erstwhile year in 2025. The corresponding budget for 2025 is to be adopted at the beginning of next year. It was the draft budget providing for savings, including cutting social benefits, that became the reason for opposition to Barnier's cabinet.
There are no votes that the Bayrou government will besides not be stable. In a divided parliament, no organization has a majority allowing for self-government or even 1 that would prevent attempts to ally each day by rivals and take a vote of distrust. Much depends on the goodwill of the opposition on the right and left sides of the political scene.
The origin of Macron's environment, as quoted by AFP on Friday, ensured that Bayrou's mission would be to “produce dialog with all political parties”, outside the RN and the LFI, in order to “create stableness and action conditions”.
AFP stated on Friday that Bayrou, who had always advocated cabinets combining various political forces, would want to hold ministers from the Republican organization (the conventional right), even though in the past his relations with this part of the political scene were strained. He should also, as the AFP forecasts, turn to the left, in conditions where parties forming the NFP have not declared their participation in the government.
The authoritative transfer of power to Bayrou as fresh Prime Minister by Barnier will take place on Friday at 5 p.m. The erstwhile Prime Minister warned earlier that any government, regardless of the political option, would gotta face the problem of a advanced budget deficit. Francea, the second euro area economy, faces a massive deficit exceeding 6% of GDP and public debt. These difficulties coincide with social tensions, including farmers' protests under the slogans of opposition to the EU-Mercosur agreement.
Source: PAP / Anna Sparrow, Paris
