The main difficulty is that Bayrou’s government, which he announced on Monday, looks a lot like that of his predecessor, Michel Barnier. It has mostly centrist and conservative lawmakers in key roles, even though the sum of its opposing forces — Marine Le Pen’s far right and a pan-leftwing alliance called the New Popular Front — make up a majority in parliament.
Barnier’s administration lost a no-confidence vote less than three months after being appointed. Based on the first reactions from opposition leaders, there’s no guarantee France’s new management will last any longer.
Olivier Faure, leader of the center-left Socialist Party, described the new government as “a provocation,” with “the hard right in power under the watchful eye of the extreme right.” The president of the far-right National Rally, Jordan Bardella, slammed the new government as ridiculous, saying Bayrou “put together the coalition of failure.”
Financial storm
Bayrou’s mission was never going to be easy. After all, since Barnier’s removal, the political situation hasn’t changed.
First, there’s the bitterly divided state of French politics. Macron’s haphazard decision to call a snap election in the summer led to a hung parliament made up of three nearly equal blocs that oppose each other — making it impossible to build a majority.
Then, there’s the need to pass a long-overdue budget for 2025 despite this fragmentation. France is under pressure to cut its massive deficit ― the difference between how much a government spends and how much it brings in ― which this year reached 6.2 percent of the country’s GDP, twice the level permitted under EU rules.