French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday appointed François Bayrou as the fourth prime minister in 2024, entrusting this centrist veteran with the task of leading the country out of its second political crisis in six months.
A priority for Bajru, a close Macron ally, will be to pass a special law for the 2024 budget overrun, with tougher battles expected over the 2025 legislation early next year. Parliamentary resistance to the 2025 law led to the fall of former Prime Minister Michel Barnier's government.
Bajru, 73, is expected to present his list of ministers in the coming days, but is likely to face the same difficulties as Barnier, trying to push legislative initiatives through a parliament divided into three warring blocs. Proximity with the extremely unpopular Macron will also not help him, according to Reuters.
Jordan Bardela, president of the far-right National Gathering (RN) party, said he would not immediately call for a vote of no confidence, while RN leader Marine Le Pen said Bajru should listen to the opposition's wishes regarding the budget.
Reaction from the left to Byro's appointment was mixed, Reuters reported.
The leader of the Communists, Fabijen Rusel, said that his party will not attack Bajru until he pushes for legislative initiatives.
But radical left leaders said they would seek to oust Bajru, while Greens leader Marin Tondelje said she would support a no-confidence vote if Bajru ignored their concerns about taxes and pensions.
The French political crisis has raised doubts about whether Macron will be able to complete his second presidential term, which expires in 2027. It has also increased France's borrowing costs and created a power vacuum in the heart of Europe as Donald Trump returns to the White House.
Macron spent the days after Barnier's ouster talking to party leaders from conservatives to communists, trying to secure support for Bajru. The National Assembly and the far left were excluded.
There was no immediate comment from the conservative Republican Party, which supported the previous government, nor from the leader of the Socialist Party, whose participation in Bajru's coalition may come at a high price for next year's budget.
"Now we will see how many billions the support of the Socialist Party will cost," an adviser in the French government told Reuters.
Macron hopes to prevent a vote of no confidence in Bajru at least until July, when France can hold new parliamentary elections, but his presidency will inevitably come into question if the government falls again.
Bajru, founder of the Party of the Democratic Movement (MoDem), which has been part of Macron's ruling coalition since 2017, has already run for president three times, drawing on his rural roots as the longtime mayor of the southwestern city of Po.
Macron appointed Bajru as justice minister in 2017, but he resigned just weeks later amid an investigation into alleged fraud by his party over the hiring of parliamentary aides. He was acquitted of fraud charges this year.
The real test for Bajru will come early next year when lawmakers have to pass an austerity budget for 2025.
However, the divisions in parliament, which has become almost unusable after Macron's snap election in June, mean that Bajru will be vulnerable to attacks from the president's opponents in the coming months.
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