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French President Emmanuel Macron named a key ally Francois Bayrou as his fourth prime minister in 2024 on Friday, but the scale of the challenge facing the veteran centrist was immediately clear as the Socialist Party refused to join his coalition government.
Bayrou, 73, gave a sober assessment of whether he can tame the loose parliament that ousted his predecessor, Michel Barnier, last week.
“It’s a long way, everyone knows that,” he told reporters. “I’m not the first to take the long road.”
A festering political disease in France has raised doubts about whether Macron will complete his second presidential term in 2027.
It has also increased French borrowing costs and left a power vacuum in the heart of Europe, just as Donald Trump heads to the White House and Germany prepares for new elections after the collapse of its ruling coalition.
Bayrou, founder of the Democratic Movement (MoDem) party that has been part of Macron’s ruling alliance since 2017, has himself run for president three times, drawing on his rural roots as the longtime mayor of the southwestern city of Pau.
His immediate priority will be passing special legislation to change the 2024 budget, with an even fiercer 2025 belt-tightening battle looming early next year.
Opposition to the 2025 law in parliament led to Barnier’s downfall, and left-wing leaders announced on Friday that they could also try to oust Bayrou if he uses special constitutional powers to push the budget against parliament.
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Bayrou’s proximity to the deeply unpopular Macron could also prove a vulnerability.
The Socialist Party, which Macron courted during his prime ministerial quest, accused the president of ignoring their demands for a left-wing leader in favor of a “risky” Macronista.
“That’s how we won’t enter the government and remain in the opposition,” said Boris Vallaud, leader of the socialist parliamentary bloc.
The reaction to Bayrou’s appointment on the left will worry Macron, and for the foreseeable future the prime minister is likely to live day to day, at the mercy of the president’s opponents.
Macron will hope that Bayrou can prevent a vote of no confidence at least until July, when France can hold new parliamentary elections.
Leaders of the far-left France Unbowed party said they would seek Bayrou’s immediate removal, while leaders of other left-wing parties took a more nuanced approach.
Greens leader Marine Tondelier also said she would support a motion of no confidence if the Prime Minister ignored their concerns about taxes and pensions.
Communist leader Fabien Roussel said his party would curb criticism of Bayrou and decide on a case-by-case basis if he promised not to break the law.
Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally (RN) party, said he would not seek an immediate confidence vote, while fellow RN leader Marine Le Pen said Bayrou should heed the opposition’s budget wishes.
A real test for the 2025 budget is looming
Barnier’s budget bill, which targeted 60 billion euros ($63 billion) in savings to appease investors increasingly worried about France’s 6 percent deficit, was seen by the far right and the left as too stingy. The government’s failure to find a way out of the impasse has pushed up France’s borrowing costs.
XTB research director Kathleen Brooks said Bayrou’s appointment was unlikely to have a major impact on French bonds. However, she said France’s CAC 40 stock index .FCHI has underperformed German stocks for three decades.
“With France still mired in political turmoil, closing this gap is an uphill battle, even with a new prime minister,” she wrote.
Macron appointed Bayrou as justice minister in 2017, but he resigned just weeks later amid an investigation into alleged fraudulent recruitment of parliamentary aides in his party. He was acquitted of fraud charges this year.
– Report by Dominique Vidalon; additional reporting by Michel Rose and Elizabeth Pineau; written by Gabriel Stargardter; editing: Richard Lough, Angus MacSwan and Ros Russell
