New French government instantly under pressure on multiple fronts

Newly appointed Prime minister Michel Barnier (R) shakes hands with outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal (L) during the handover ceremony at the Hotel Matignon in Paris, on September 5, 2024. Attal is to ask newly appointed Prime Minister Barnier for guarantees on "Medically-assisted reproduction, the right to abortion, LGBTQ rights", according to participants at a group meeting, on September 22, 2024. [AFP]

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier's hard-won new government faced pressure from day one Sunday as threats of a no-confidence motion in parliament multiplied.

The long wait for a functioning government after President Emmanuel Macron called a snap general election ended after 11 weeks late Saturday with his appointment of a cabinet marking a clear shift to the right.

Opposition politicians from the left have already said they will challenge Barnier's government with a no-confidence motion as early as next month, with far-right politicians also slamming its composition.

In the July election, a left-wing alliance called the New Popular Front (NFP) won the most parliamentary seats of any political bloc, but not enough for an overall majority.

Veteran far-right leader Marine Le Pen meanwhile saw her National Rally emerge as the single largest party in the Assembly.

Macron had argued that the left was unable to muster enough support to form a government that would not immediately be brought down in parliament, and rejected a National Rally candidate over the party's extremist legacy.

He turned instead to Barnier to lead a government drawing on parliamentary support mostly from Macron's allies, as well as from the conservative Republicans (LR) and centrists groups.

'No future'

Talks on the distribution of the cabinet posts continued right up to Saturday's official announcement, insiders said, with moments of sharp tension between the president and his prime minister.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon has called the new lineup "a government of the general election losers", saying France should "get rid" of it "as soon as possible".

Even before the announcement, thousands of people took to the streets of Paris and other French cities Saturday in a left-wing protest to denounce what they called a denial of July's election results.

Socialist Party chairman Oliver Faure on Saturday dismissed Barnier's cabinet as "a reactionary government that gives democracy the finger". On Sunday, he called it the "most right-wing government of the Fifth Republic".

Macron had been counting on a neutral stance from the far right, but National Rally leader Jordan Bardella said the new government had "no future whatsoever".

While Macron's allies had to relinquish some key ministries, they still got 12 portfolios out of the total 39.

"This is not a new government, it's a reshuffle," quipped Communist party leader Fabien Roussel.

- 'Same as before' -

Former French president Francois Hollande, a Socialist, called the cabinet "the same as before, but with an even stronger presence of the right" and one that would inflict "painful measures on our fellow citizens".

He said a no-confidence motion was "a good solution".

To pass, such a motion needs an absolute majority in parliament, which would then force the government to step down immediately -- currently an unlikely scenario as the far right and the leftist bloc, sworn enemies, would have to vote in unison.

Faure said the Socialists were planning to bring a no-confidence vote on October 1 after Barnier's general policy speech to parliament scheduled for that day, but he acknowledged that "it will probably fail" in the absence of support from the National Rally, which has said it will wait before making any move against the government.

The first major test for Barnier, best known internationally for leading the European Union's Brexit negotiations with Britain, will be to submit a 2025 budget plan addressing France's financial situation, which he this week called "very serious".

France has been placed on a formal procedure for violating European Union budgetary rules and needs to show it is making a serious effort at financial recovery.

The difficult job of submitting a budget plan to parliament next month falls to 33-year-old Antoine Armand, the new finance minister, who said it could include "exceptional and targeted" tax increases.

Among the other new faces in key cabinet posts are Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, while the interior ministry went to Bruno Retailleau of the Republicans whose right-wing credentials have created unease even in Macron's own camp.

Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu, a close Macron ally, has kept his job.

Barnier is scheduled to make a TV appearance later Sunday.