Two weeks after his appointment, French Prime Minister Michel Barnier is preparing to present to the French people in the coming days the composition of his government, which should have 38 members, despite initial controversies over the very right-wing positioning of certain ministers.
Coming from the ranks of the right-wing party Les Républicains, Michel Barnier took an important step on Thursday in the difficult development of his executive, which does not have an absolute majority in the National Assembly, by submitting his list to the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron on Thursday evening.
A “constructive” exchange of around fifty minutes during which the Prime Minister presented “the architecture and composition of his government which respects the balances” between the different formations which will constitute it, his services indicated.
The president, who had a tense lunch with his head of government on Tuesday, according to several sources, saw him off saying “thank you very much, see you tomorrow.”
“In any case, he does not deny any names,” a close friend of the head of state told AFP.
According to the Prime Minister’s team, the executive should be presented before Sunday, “in light of the usual ethical checks”, in other words the green light from the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP) for the appointment of future ministers.
The government will not be announced on Friday because “final adjustments” to its composition are still underway, Mr Barnier’s services specified on Friday.
The government should include 38 members, including seven members of Mr Macron’s party, three from the traditional right (Les Républicains), two centrists (MoDem), one Horizons or one UDI (centre-right parties) for the largest ministries.
Among the three ministers from the right is Bruno Retailleau, the leader of the Republican senators (LR), who should be appointed to the Ministry of the Interior, several sources from the right and the central bloc indicated.
The nomination of this figure from the conservative camp, very right-wing on immigration, was denounced on Friday on the left, as was that of LR senator Laurence Garnier for the Ministry of the Family, because of her positions against same-sex marriage and against the inclusion of access to voluntary termination of pregnancy in the French Constitution.
The head of the deputies of La France Insoumise (radical left), Mathilde Panot, criticised an “extreme rightward shift” of the power in place.
On the “Macronists” side, the resigned MoDem (centre) Minister for European Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot will be proposed for Foreign Affairs, while the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu should be reappointed.
Who in Finance?
While he is struggling to find left-wing personalities, from whom he has been repeatedly refused, only a “miscellaneous left” would appear at the head of one of the major ministries. The name of the socialist Didier Migaud is circulating to enter Justice.
The Ministry of Economy and Finance would be headed by a duo of “Macronist” deputies: Antoine Armand for the economy and industry on one side; Matthieu Lefèvre on the other for the budget.
Giving a serious boost to the formation of his team, the Prime Minister had gathered on Thursday the leaders of the parties that were to participate, with the intention of putting an end to the tensions that have emerged in recent days.
According to several participants, he affirmed that he would not increase taxes for the middle classes, a decision that satisfied Gabriel Attal, the leader of the Macronist deputies, who had set this condition for his party’s participation in the government.
According to a press release from his services, Michel Barnier stated that he intended to “improve the standard of living of the French and the functioning of public services, particularly schools and health, guarantee security, control immigration and advance integration.”
He also wants to “encourage [les] companies and [les] farmers and strengthen the economic attractiveness of France, control [les] public finances and reduce ecological debt”.
The Prime Minister said on Wednesday that he had discovered a “very serious budgetary situation”. France, along with several other member countries of the European Union, is the subject of a European procedure for excessive deficits.
Time is running out on the budget, the timetable for which was delayed by the dissolution of the National Assembly on June 9 and the very late appointment of a new prime minister on September 5.