French President Emmanuel Macron named a new government led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier Saturday, marked by a shift to the right 11 weeks after an inconclusive parliamentary election.
The first major task for Barnier, appointed just over two weeks ago, will be to submit a 2025 budget plan addressing France’s financial situation, which the prime minister this week called “very serious”.
Conservative Barnier is best known internationally for leading the European Union’s Brexit negotiations with the UK.
More recently, he has had the difficult job of submitting a cabinet for Macron’s approval that has the best chance of surviving a no-confidence motion in parliament.
Opposition politicians from the left have already announced they will challenge his government with a confidence motion.
In the July election, a left-wing bloc called the New Popular Front (NFP) won the most parliamentary seats of any political bloc, but not enough for an overall majority.
Macron argued that the left would be unable to muster enough support to form a government that would not immediately be brought down in parliament.
He turned instead to Barnier to lead a government drawing mostly on parliamentary support from Macron’s allies, as well as from the conservative Republicans (LR) and the centrists groups.