France’s new Prime Minister Francois Bayrou says he is well aware of the scale of France’s financial and political problems, comparing the country’s budget deficit to the Himalayan mountain range.
“No one knows better than me the difficulty of the situation,” Bayrou said at a handover ceremony with former Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Friday.
“I am fully aware of the Himalayas that loom ahead of us,” he said of the budget deficit now at 6.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
President Emmanuel Macron named centrist Bayrou as his new prime minister after Barnier was forced by far-right and left-wing lawmakers to step down after just three months in office in a historic no-confidence vote last week.
Bayrou is a well-known figure in French politics whose political experience is seen as key in efforts to restore stability to the country.
The 73-year-old leader of the Democratic Movement (Mouvement Democrate, or MoDem) group, which has been allied to the president’s centrist Renaissance party since he swept to power in 2017.
The country was plunged into a political crisis when Macron called snap elections earlier this year after his party polled badly in European elections, with Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party emerging as the clear victor.
But his bid to buttress his minority government, which had struggled to pass legislation, backfired spectacularly when the poll delivered an inconclusive result, leaving parliament divided among three warring blocs with no absolute majority.
The new prime minister, the country’s fourth this year, was recently cleared in a case alleging embezzlement of European Parliament funds.
‘Red lines still there’
Bayrou, who served as education minister from 1993 to 1997, now faces the immediate challenge of putting together a cabinet that can survive a no-confidence vote and thrash out a 2025 budget in a bid to limit economic turmoil.
He is expected to hold talks with political leaders from various parties in the coming days in order to choose new ministers. Some conservatives are expected to be part of the new government.
Macron’s strategy aims at preventing far-right leader Le Pen from holding “make or break” power over the government.
Le Pen helped depose Barnier by joining her RN party’s forces to the left to pass the no-confidence motion last week.
The president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, said Friday that his party will take a wait-and-see approach for now. “Our red lines are still there, they’re not going to change,” he warned.
RN officials, including Le Pen, have said they want any new budget law to preserve the purchasing power of the French people.
France’s festering political malaise has raised doubts about whether Macron will complete his second presidential term, which ends in 2027. The president has pledged to stay on “until the end” of his five-year term, until May 2027.
In a critical moment, Le Pen will be judged in an embezzlement trial next year. If convicted, she could lose the opportunity to stand in the 2027 election.
The public appears to be eager for a period of stability in French politics, with just over two-thirds of respondents in an Elabe poll published Wednesday saying they want politicians to reach a deal, not to overthrow a new government.
