Macron Rolls the Dice… Again: Appoints Centrist Ally François Bayrou as New French Prime Minister

French political veteran François Bayrou, a long time ally of President Macron has been named as the head of the new French government after the last collapsed in record time.

French President Emmanuel Macron is unable to dispose of his three-way-split parliament, so instead he has attempted to put together a new government after the last became the shortest-lived in modern history. The job was too much for skilled negotiator Michel Barnier who found himself in the job for just three months until his government collapsed last month, now Macron turns to a man described as a “maneuverer, champion of pluralism and compromise”.

73-year-old François Bayrou, the mayor of Pau in the Pyrenees mountains for ten years and an early supporter of Emmanuel Macron before he was President has been announced as the next inhabitant of the Matignon, the official residence of French Prime Ministers. Seen as a tireless centrist and a skilled operator, despite his long years of experience — he had been a government minister in the 1990s, stood for the presidency three times, and was even Macron’s justice minister for 35 days in 2017 — the intractable problems at the heart of French politics may still be too much to overcome.

President Macron had called a snap election earlier this year to strengthen his personal mandate and overcome divisions in the French National Assembly, their parliament, but the gambit backfired and left the nation with a chamber more fractured than ever, and with no clear mandates. France was without a new government for weeks and when it finally came — under former Eurocrat Barnier — it collapsed in months.

This fall came because, split between a deeply hostile left (including hard left), Macron’s centrists, and Le Pen’s sovereigntists there is no real majority for any government in the house, and so a simple vote against the Prime Minister can bring any administration crashing down. While the left maintains a position of voting against all and any governments they do not themselves head, Le Pen’s National Rally (Rassemblement National, RN) had previously kept its powder dry until it became clear the Macron faction was intent on pushing through tax rises and effective social security cuts they disagreed with. This is what ended the government last week.

Again, the RN have said they will give this government a chance to see what it comes up with. Head of the RN faction in parliament Jordan Bardella said as much on Friday morning, stating while the party’s “red lines” remain — on border control, and protecting French workers including from tax hikes — they would adopt a wait-and-see approach.

The left-wing France Unbowed (La France Insoumise, LFI) party, however are furious and don’t mind who knows it, calling the new government a charade to prop up Macron himself at the expense of France — which is probably true — and vowing to shoot it down as soon as they can gather the votes to do so. Head of the LFI’s Parliamentary faction Mathilde Panot took to Twitter/X and declared: “Another candidacy for Emmanuel Macron’s reprieve.”

Only two choices existed, Panot said, stating her party had already made it choice to vote down Macron’s new government as soon as possible.

Her sometimes colleague François Ruffin — a political personality in his own right who will ride with any left wing party willing to carry him upwards, from the communists to the greens — made much the same point, decrying Macron for “making fun of the French” by picking a long-time political ally for Prime Minister while the voters themselves “are demanding change”.

Ruffin said the developments of recent days raised the question of Macron resigning and triggering fresh Presidential elections. Macron has denied this, asserting he’d hang on to the bitter end, but never the less the deputy said this was an eventuality “the left must prepare for”.

Prime Minister Bayrou, the forth French PM this year, will now build a government of ministers in the coming days. He had previously served under Macron in 2017 as justice minister, but for just 35 days. He was quickly ousted over allegations in a scandal around embezzlement of European Union funds to pay for domestic politics, coincidentally the exact alleged crime prosecutors are trying to convict Marine Le Pen of in the courts today.

The matter is a serious one, if convicted she could be barred from running for the Presidency, although Le Pen herself denies any wrongdoing and insists “nothing will stop me”. Bayrou was cleared of these charges earlier this year.

This story is developing, more follows.