Macron chooses centrist Bayrou as prime minister of France in an effort to end political instability

Centrist leader François Bayrou has become France’s next prime minister, after President Emmanuel Macron selected him in a bid to end months of political turmoil.

Bayrou, the 73-year-old mayor of the South-West who leads the Democratic Movement Party, said everyone understood the difficulty of the task ahead of them: “I think reconciliation is necessary.”

Macron’s entourage sees him as a potential compromise candidate whose mission will be to avoid the fate of his predecessor. MPs expelled Michel Barnier, the former Brexit negotiator, nine days ago, and received Bayrou at the prime minister’s residence on Friday.

Macron is in the middle of his second term as president, and Bayrou will be his fourth prime minister this year.

French politics have been at a dead end since Macron called early parliamentary elections over the summer and a BFMTV poll on Thursday showed that 61% of French voters are concerned about the political situation.

Although a string of allies lined up to applaud Bairro’s appointment, regional Socialist leader Karol Delga said the whole process had become a “bad movie”. Manuel Bompard, leader of France’s far-left party, complained of the “pathetic scene.”

The center-left Socialists said they were ready to talk to Bayrou but would not participate in his government. Leader Olivier Faure said the Socialists would remain in the opposition because Macron chose someone “from his camp.”

President Macron has pledged to remain in office until his second term ends in 2027, despite Barnier’s fall last week.

He cut short a visit to Poland on Thursday and was expected to appoint his new prime minister on Thursday evening, but he postponed his announcement until Friday.

He then met Bayrou at the Elysee Palace and the final decision was made hours later. But in reference to the fraught nature of the talks. the world A newspaper suggested that Macron would have preferred another ally, Roland Lescure, but he changed his mind when Bayrou threatened to withdraw his party’s support.

Bayrou arrived at the Prime Minister’s residence at the Matignon Hotel late Friday afternoon. The red carpet for the transfer of power had been rolled out even before his name was confirmed.

The challenge he faces will be to form a government that will not be overthrown, as happened with his predecessor in the National Assembly. The far-left France Unbend party has already threatened to demand a vote of no confidence as soon as possible.

Before his appointment, Macron held roundtable talks with leaders of all major political parties, except for the far-left led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the right-wing National Rally of Marine Le Pen.

The question now is who can be persuaded to join Bayero’s government, or at least agree to an agreement so that they do not overthrow him.

When the only possible means for the survival of a minority government is to build bridges on the left and the right, Bayrou has the advantage of having good relations with both sides, the BBC’s Hugh Schofield in Paris reports.

Michel Barnier was appointed only in September, and he said on Friday that he knew from the outside that his government’s days were numbered.

He was voted out when Le Pen’s National Rally party joined left-wing MPs in rejecting his plans to raise taxes and cut spending worth €60bn (£50bn). He was seeking to reduce France’s budget deficit, which is expected to reach 6.1% of GDP this year.

His outgoing government proposed a draft law to enable 2024 budget allocations to continue next year. But the alternative budget for 2025 will have to be approved once the next government takes office.

Barnier wished his successor best wishes, adding that “our country is in a dangerous and unprecedented situation.”

Under the political system of the Fifth French Republic, the president is elected for a five-year term and appoints a prime minister, and the president then appoints his choice of government.

Unusually, President Macron called for early elections for Parliament during the summer after poor results in the European Union elections in June. The result left France in a political dilemma, with three large political blocs consisting of the left, center and far right.

In the end, Barnier chose to form a minority government that relied on Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party for its survival. Macron now hopes to restore stability without relying on her party.

Three centre-left parties – the Socialists, Greens and Communists – broke away from the more radical left-wing LFI party by participating in the talks with Macron.

However, they have made clear that they want a prime minister from the left, not from the centre.

“I told you I want someone from the left and the Greens, and I think Mr. Bayrou is neither one nor the other,” Marine Tondillier, leader of the Green Party, told French television on Thursday.

Patrick Kanner of the Socialists said that just because his party did not join Bayrou’s government “does not mean that we will attack it.”

Sébastien Chenault, a member of parliament for the National Rally party, said that for his party, it was less about who Macron chose than about the “political line” he chose. If Bayrou wants to address the migration crisis and the cost of living, he “will find an ally in us.”

Relations between the centre-left and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical LFI party appear to have broken down over the three parties’ decision to continue talks with President Macron.

After the LFI leader called on his former allies to walk away from the coalition deal, the Socialists’ Olivier Faure told French television that “the more Mélenchon shouts, the less he will be heard.”

At the same time, Marine Le Pen called for the next government to take her party’s policies on the cost of living into account, by building a budget that “does not cross the red lines of each party.”