Macron appointed Bayrou as Prime Minister of France to end political instability

President Emmanuel Macron has appointed centrist leader François Bayrou as France’s next prime minister, in a bid to end months of political unrest.

Bayrou, a 73-year-old mayor from the Southwest region and leader of the MoDem party, said everyone recognizes the difficulty of the task ahead: “I think there needs to be reconciliation.”

He is seen by Macron’s entourage as a potential consensus candidate and his mission will be to avoid the fate of his predecessor. Former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier was only in office for three months and was ousted by MPs nine days ago.

Macron is halfway through his second presidential term and Bayrou will be his fourth prime minister this year.

French politics has been deadlocked since Macron called snap parliamentary elections in the summer and a BFMTV opinion poll on Thursday showed 61% of French voters were worried by the political situation.

Although a slew of allies lined up to praise Bayrou’s appointment, Socialist sector leader Carole Delga said the whole process had become a “bad movie”. French far-left leader Unyielding Manuel Bompard complained of a “pathetic scene”.

Center-left socialists said they were willing to talk to Bayrou but would not join his government. Leader Olivier Faure said that because Macron had chosen someone “from his side”, the Socialist Party would remain in opposition.

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

He cut short a trip to Poland on Thursday and was expected to name a new prime minister on Thursday evening, but postponed the announcement until Friday.

He then met Bayrou at the Elysée Palace and the final decision was made a few hours later. But in a sign of the tense nature of the negotiations, Le Monde the newspaper suggested that Macron preferred another ally, Roland Lescure, but changed his mind when Bayrou threatened to withdraw his party’s support.

Bayrou is set to move into the prime minister’s residence at Hôtel Matignon within hours, and a red carpet has been rolled out for the transfer of power even before his name has been confirmed.

His challenge will be to form a government that will not be overthrown like its predecessor in the National Assembly.

Macron has held roundtable talks with the leaders of all the main political parties, except for Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left France Unbowed (LFI) party and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party. .

The question was who could be persuaded to join Bayrou’s government, or at least agree to a treaty so that they would not overthrow him.

When the only means of survival for a minority government is to build bridges to the left and right, Bayrou has the advantage of having quite good relationships with both sides, BBC Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield reports.

Michel Barnier was only appointed in September and LFI MPs have said they will propose another vote of no confidence in his successor’s government.

He was voted out when Le Pen’s National Rally joined with left-wing MPs to reject his €60bn (£50bn) plan for tax increases and spending cuts. He is looking to cut France’s budget deficit, which is expected to reach 6.1% of economic output (GDP) this year.

His outgoing government has introduced a bill that would allow provisions from the 2024 budget to continue into next year. However, the replacement budget for 2025 will have to be approved once the next government takes office.

Barnier wished his successor the best of luck in what he called “this serious period for France and Europe”.

Under the political system of the French Fifth Republic, the president is elected for five years and appoints a prime minister whose cabinet selection is then appointed by the president.

Unusually, President Macron called for early parliamentary elections in the summer after poor results in June’s EU elections. The results left France in a political deadlock, with three major political blocs including left, center and extreme right.

Ultimately, he chose Barnier to form a minority government that relied on Marine Le Pen’s National Rally for its survival. Macron is now hoping to restore stability without depending on his party.

Three centre-left parties – the Socialist Party, the Green Party and the Communist Party – broke ranks with the more radical left-wing LFI by entering into negotiations with Macron.

However, they made it clear that they wanted a left-wing prime minister, rather than a centrist.

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

Patrick Kanner of the Socialist Party said that just because his party did not join Bayrou’s government, “that doesn’t mean we will defeat it”.

Sébastien Chenu, a National Rally MP, said for his party it was not who Macron chose that mattered but the “political line” he chose. If Bayrou wants to solve immigration and the cost of living crisis, he will “find an ally in us.”

The relationship between the center-left and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical LFI appears to have frayed over the three parties’ decision to pursue negotiations with President Macron.

After the LFI leader urged his former allies to stay away from a coalition deal, the Socialist Party’s Olivier Faure told French television that “the more Mélenchon shouts, the less he is heard”.

Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen has called on her party’s incoming government to take into account her party’s policies by drawing up a budget that “does not cross each party’s red lines”.