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France’s new Prime Minister François Bayrou has appointed Eric Lombard, head of state-backed financial group Caisse des Dépôts, as finance minister and given him the key role of drawing up a budget for next year.
Lombard will be tasked with developing a 2025 tax and spending plan that can be approved FranceThe noisy parliament failed and at the same time began to repair the country’s troubled public finances.
Bayrou’s predecessor, Michel Barnier, was deposed by the National Assembly in a no-confidence vote earlier this month due to opposition from left-wing and far-right political parties to his deficit-cutting budget.
On Monday, Bayrou set the ambitious goal of getting as close as possible to Barnier’s goal of cutting France’s deficit to 5 percent of GDP by the end of 2025 from more than 6 percent this year.
“I think we need to find something around 5 (percent of GDP), a little more than 5, that allows us to reach an agreement and find a balance,” he told BFM TV.
Bayrou said “the priority should be on cutting unproductive public spending,” adding that companies could be required to pay higher taxes for a “temporary period.”
Members of Bayrou’s cabinet were introduced Monday after days of wrangling between him and him President Emmanuel Macronwhich formally appoints ministers following recommendations from the Prime Minister.
Macron and Bayrou are under pressure to end France’s political unrest by forming a government that can survive and pass crucial measures in the divided parliament.
France has its fourth prime minister this year, an unprecedented level of exodus in France’s Fifth Republic, founded in 1958.
Barnier’s term lasted just three months, making him the shortest-serving prime minister.
Brussels and financial markets have been scrutinizing France to see if it can start reducing its deficit, which is well above the EU limit of 3 percent of GDP.
Bayrou, who leads the small MoDem party that has been allied with Macron’s centrist bloc in parliament since 2017, does not have enough votes to pass a budget.
If Bayrou tries to overrule lawmakers and invoke a clause in the French constitution to pass the budget, as Barnier did, he will be vulnerable to a vote of no confidence.
Last week, an emergency budget was approved by Parliament to bridge the gap to prevent a shutdown of government services in January.
Lombard, a 66-year-old former banker and technocrat, has led the Caisse des Dépôts since Macron appointed him in 2017 to head the group, which invests in public housing, infrastructure and green projects.
In the areas of defense and international diplomacy, considered the domain of the president rather than the prime minister, Macron has opted for continuity, keeping loyalist Sébastien Lecornu as army minister and Jean-Noël Barrot as foreign minister. Both served in Barnier’s government.
About half of the ministers in Barnier’s government were retained by Bayrou in the same portfolios.
Among them is Bruno Retailleau, a right-wing extremist who made a name for himself as interior minister with harsh words on immigration and crime.
Former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, also from Macron’s centrist camp, will return as education minister.
The political unrest in France began when Macron called early parliamentary elections in June. just to lose and usher in a more fragmented National Assembly.
Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National and a left-wing bloc consisting of the far-left France Unbowed, Socialists, Communists and Greens voted to oust Barnier as prime minister.
Le Pen, whose party is the largest in the National Assembly, sealed Barnier’s fate at the time she refused Concessions on his proposed budget.
To avoid being beholden to the Rassemblement National, Bayrou tried to win over moderate left-wing lawmakers by offering concessions and positions in a government of national unity, he said.
Although the Socialists, Greens and Communists initially seemed open to such a deal, they later concluded that Bayrou was not offering enough, and none joined his government.
“This is not a government, but a provocation,” said Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure.
In a sign that Rassemblement National is still in power, Bayrou had to abandon the nomination of Xavier Bertrand, a right-wing politician and long-time opponent of Le Pen, as justice minister. She signaled that his presence in Bayrou’s government would displease her party.
Bayrou instead chose Gérald Darmanin, a Macron ally and former interior minister, as justice minister.
“The failure to reach an agreement with the left puts this government in the same fragile position as the previous one,” said Chloé Morin, a political analyst and author.
