The composition of France’s new government has finally been announced after weeks of tense negotiations - and is widely seen as veering to the right.
Ten of the 39 ministerial positions are from the right-wing Les Républicains and only one of the 19 new ministers - Minister of Justice Didier Migaud - is considered to be from the left.
Among those gaining a position in the new cabinet is Bruno Retailleau, a key member of the conservative Les Républicains party. He has been appointed interior minister, a portfolio that includes immigration.
The post of finance minister went to Antoine Armand, a member of President Macron’s Renaissance party. Centrist politician Jean-Noël Barrot (Mouvement démocrate) was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.
See the full make-up of the new government as announced on September 21 here:
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16 days of negotiations
The tense 16 days of negotiations to name the government saw new right-wing prime minister Michel Barnier threaten to resign, according to a FranceInfo source.
Mr Barnier, the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, was tasked with creating a government that would unite the fractured parliament - and had been promised a free hand to appoint ministers, however this was reportedly not the case.
“The president is meddling with everything, without appearing to do so!”, a source from the right-wing Les Républicains told FranceInfo. “He's playing with fire. If Michel resigns, he'll be the one on the front line.”
Mr Macron’s negotiators, led by former prime minister Gabriel Attal, were reportedly concerned over the approach Mr Barnier was taking, particularly for the outline of next year's budget, which the new government must propose before the end of the year.
Former socialist president François Hollande has called the new government “fragile”.
“We need to censure [the Barnier government], and a Socialist motion of censure seems to me to be the right solution to get as many MPs on board as possible,” he said in an interview with France Bleu Limousin.
The leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon wrote on X that the new government had “neither legitimacy nor a future. We need to get rid of it as soon as possible.”
His supporters took to the streets on September 21 in protest against the new government, albeit in lower numbers than on September 7.
Official reports estimate only 3,200 protesters took part in the march in Paris, however La France Insoumise claims that far more people participated.
The choice of a right-wing prime minister after the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) gained the most seats in July’s parliamentary elections - but not enough for an overall majority - proved controversial and led to over a 100,000 protesters taking to the streets on September 7.
The left-wing alliance of the NFP was outraged that President Macron rejected its proposition of Lucie Castets as prime minister.
“Lucie Castets would have lasted 48 hours”, political scientist Benjamin Morel toldLa Dépêche. “A motion of censure needs 289 votes, and it would have passed against her.”
This motion - described as “pure cinema” by right-wing MP Sébastien Chenu - requires support from two-thirds of parliament and is thus unable to pass.
Nonetheless, it indicates depths of animosity against Mr Macron from the largest voting block in parliament, which is likely to support a bid to topple the new government with a ‘motion de censure’..
