François Bayrou, a centrist, has today been named as France’s new prime minister by president Emmanuel Macron (December 13).
Mr Bayrou, 73, met Mr Macron at the Elysée Palace for a private meeting before the announcement.
He replaces Michel Barnier who was toppled after a vote of no confidence last week.
He holds the position of mayor in Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) and has consistently positioned himself as a politician who bridges the traditional left-right political divide in France.
He is also head of the centrist MoDem party, which is part of Mr Macron's coalition in parliament.
"Everyone is aware of the difficulty of the task. I believe that there is a path to be found that brings people together instead of dividing them," he said to press outside the Elysée in his first words as prime minister. "I think that reconciliation is necessary," he added.
The initial key task of Mr Bayrou's government will be to pass a 2025 budget at some point in the new year, and to avoid another motion de censure.
He will attempt to form a cabinet in the coming days, but it is unclear whether Mr Bayrou will be able to muster the backing of enough MPs to retain a majority of some form in the Assemblée nationale.
Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure previously said the party would not support a Bayrou government as it did not represent a break from Mr Macron’s policies.
Earlier this morning the party said that it would exclude any member who joins a cabinet not headed by a left-wing prime minister (such as Mr Bayrou's).
Read more: Ministers to debate emergency law so France can continue to collect tax and pay expenses
Mixed reaction across the political spectrum
The far-right Rassemblement National party (RN) said that François Bayrou was not a ‘red line’ candidate for the role so they would not immediately attempt to oust him through a vote of no confidence.
“It is not about the man, it is about the political line. When Michel Barnier arrived we let him build a project. If François Bayrou wants to tackle immigration and protect the purchasing power of the French, he will find us as an ally,” said RN MP Sébastien Chenu to France2.
“If he submits to the European Union, if he thinks the asylum and immigration pact is great, if he takes money from the French, he will not be able to count on us,” he added.
"The RN's red lines remain in place," said party leader Jordan Bardella, and that the new prime minister must understand "he does not have democratic legitimacy nor a majority in the Assemblée nationale."
On the left, it is unclear whether Mr Bayrou has the backing of some members of the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) coalition.
The far-left La France Insoumise are opposed to his nomination – which they see as a continuation of a Macronist policy – and will file a vote of no confidence against Mr Bayrou.
Green leader Marine Tondelier said the party would support a motion if the current Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau retained his position. This is due to his hardline anti-immigraiton stance.
Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel called the appointment 'disappointing news'.
The attendance of the Socialist Party, Greens, and Communists at meetings with Mr Macron over the last week – but not La France Insoumise who were excluded – strained relations in the NFP, and the coalition may buckle under these disagreements.
This would be a good outcome for Emmanuel Macron, with the end of a formal left-wing coalition placing his coalition as the largest group in the Assemblée nationale (although not the largest single party).
Whilst the Socialist Party will not officially join a Bayrou cabinet, members have said the party will not support a vote of no confidence against the new prime minister providing he does not use the controversial article 49.3 to pass any laws.
However, unless the prime minister can gain support from either the left or far-right in the cabinet he is unlikely to be able to pass legislation such as the budget without bypassing a parliamentary vote.
Who is François Bayrou and what are his positions?
Mr Bayrou is the head of the MoDem party that forms part of Mr Macron’s centrist coalition in parliament, and has been an ally of Mr Macron since the latter’s presidential campaign in 2017. He becomes the sixth prime minister to serve under Emmanuel Macron.
He ran independent of the major political parties in the 2007 presidential election gaining 18% of the vote in the first round.
Born in south-west France, Mr Bayrou was a teacher before becoming involved in politics, where his career saw him drift from the right of the political spectrum towards the centre.
He was part of the centre-right UDF before forming his own centrist party MoDem in 2007
The party was founded after Mr Bayrou’s 2007 presidential election campaign where he gained 18% of the vote, finishing third and narrowly missing out on making the second-round run-off.
Since MoDem’s creation the party has seen middling support, reaching a high of 48 MPs in the 2022 legislative elections where it ran as part of a Macronist coalition.
Mr Bayrou became known during the early 2000s as an advocate of ending France’s ‘two-party system’ made up of the Socialists and a right-wing party (under various names) that had dominated politics in the Fifth Republic.
He promoted a centrist ‘third-way’ which took ideas from both camps with an emphasis on increasing education spending but overall balancing France’s deficit.
This ‘centrist’ position led him to support Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 presidential bid, bringing the MoDem party under the president’s banner.
He renounced his own presidential campaign to back Mr Macron which took many political commentators by surprise and helped Mr Macron’s ascension.
This support netted him the position of justice minister in the first cabinet of Mr Macron’s presidency however he was forced to resign less than two months later over a false jobs scandal in the MoDem party.
The party was accused of misusing European Parliament funds, and creating over a dozen fake jobs to pay members for work they had not done.
Mr Bayrou was formally acquitted of fraud charges over the scandal in 2024.
Alongside his short-role as justice minister he was also education minister between 1993 and 1997, when he attempted to pass a reform that would allow private schools to be subsidised by local authorities.
The reform was shelved after widespread protests.
Mr Bayrou is a pro-EU politician, calling the political project “the most beautiful construction of all humanity”. MoDem has received between three and six MEP seats in each European elections since its creation.
Alongside his mayorship of Pau, Mr Bayrou has significant ties with the south-west of France, raising his children on the farm where he was born and speaking Béarnese (a local dialect) alongside French.
