François Bayroua veteran centrist of 73 years old, mayor of the small southern town of Pau until a year ago, is the one chosen by President Macron to be the next Prime Minister of France.
He will be the fourth head of government since his re-election in April 2022. Bayrou’s main task will be form a team that marginalizes the most agitating (and powerful) forces of the Assembly, the extreme left of Mélenchon and the extreme right of Le Pen, and ensure that groups as disparate as republicans, socialists or environmentalists come together in common interests. Macron takes account, then, with the 166 Macronists, 66 socialists, 47 conservatives, 38 environmentalists, 21 regionalists and 17 communists in the chamber.
No one will say that Bayrou is a novice in the Parisian corridors of power, nor a stranger to his compatriots. He was a minister with François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac and Macron himself, and got a biography about Henry IV became a bestseller.
Reuters
His name rang loudly for days, but others ran at the same speed in the last hours. The newspaper Le Monde account that the president finally opted for Roland Lescurea faithful Macronist, with the confidence that Bayrou would settle for being his number two. Bayrou, scandalized, threatened to break the support of the 36 representatives of the Democratic Movement for Macron in the Assembly, according to the reputable newspaper, and the president ended up not complicating things even more.
So Macron, stumbled, closes the last cycle of suspense with an election that aims to give political stability to France that it was unable to achieve with its commitment to a man with a negotiating spirit and pleasant to the extreme right, such as the Republican. Michel Barnier. What they will not deny to the president, at least, is that he kept his word given last week to the French to be faster on this occasion and not make them wait for a whole month.
On Friday, in a pre-recorded video, he accused Barnier’s failure aun “anti-republican front”composed of those of Mélenchon and those of Le Pen, to sow “chaos.” Macron offered a reading that overlooked his mistakes, such as the early electoral process with which he lost his parliamentary majority, and was targeted by the unusual alliance that overthrew his prime minister after less than a hundred days in office.
“They only think about the presidential elections, about preparing them, about provoking them, about rushing them,” he protested, before stating that he will not resign and that he will fulfill a popular mandate that expires in 2027. “The only calendar that matters to me is our nation’snot that of ambitions,” he stated, and that his “responsibility” is to “guarantee the continuity of the State, the proper functioning of our institutions, the independence of our country and the protection of all of you.”
In this way, on Wednesday, Barnier’s acting government approved a special bill to extend the 2024 budgets and avoid a “financial blackout” when the country faces serious economic difficulties, harassed by debt interests that eat up more budget than military allocations and with an annual deficit that alarms in Brussels.
Many analysts warn about the risks of Macron’s new move. In Italy, the creation of a concentration government with the support of the majority of forces caused those who remained on the sidelines, the Brothers of Italy, to rise like foam in the polls, immune to the wear and tear of management, and converted Giorgia Meloni as prime minister after an early election.
The threat of Marine Le Pen
The reaction ofleader of the French far rightMarine Le Penhas not been long in coming and has already threatened François Bayrou, demanding a change of political course so as not to suffer the same fate as his predecessor, the conservative Michel Barnier, ousted by a motion of censure.
“Any policy that only consists of prolonging Macronism, rejected twice at the polls, can only lead to a dead end and failure.”Le Pen warned on social networks.
Unlike the leftist Rebellious France (LFI)his party has indicated that will not present a motion of censure from the outset, but has asked him to open negotiations on the budget.
“We ask him to do what his predecessor did not want to do: listen to opponents to build a reasonable and elaborate budget,” said the far-right leader.
Motion of censure of La Francia Insumisa
If Barnier’s Government seemed totally dependent on Le Pen, because the left as a whole rejected it from the outset, Bayrou seems to enjoy certain indulgence of socialists, communists and environmentalists.
Bayrou will now have to appoint an Executive and show his broad political lines, on which his survival at the head of the Government will depend.
The parliamentary spokesperson for LFI, Mathilde Panot, has already announced the presentation of a motion of censure in the coming days.
The environmental leader Marine Tondelier assured that They plan to support that motionthe communist Fabien Roussel indicated that they will not do it right away, waiting to know Bayrou’s objectives.
Something similar to what the socialist leaders have been saying, who have not yet spoken out after the announcement of Bayrou’s appointment, as has the conservative right.
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