PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron and new PM Francois Bayrou kept the country waiting on Sunday over the composition of the fourth government in a year, that must drag France out of political crisis.

The 73-year-old centrist, appointed on Dec 13 after the fall of a short-lived conservative-led government, is aiming to name a new government by Christmas. Some observers predict Bayrou will struggle to survive.

Macron, who returned Sunday from a visit to cyclone-devastated Mayotte and East Africa, spoke with Bayrou twice on Sunday and scheduled a face-to-face meeting for Sunday evening.

But a member of Macron’s team told AFP the cabinet list would not be announced Sunday. The source did not say when the names would be unveiled.

Bayrou, head of the MoDem party which is allied to Macron’s party, pressed ahead with consultations over the weekend.

“We are making progress,” Marc Fesneau of MoDem said in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche.

Bayrou’s immediate priority is to make sure his government can survive a no-confidence vote and passes a budget for next year.

He is hoping to bring in figures from the left, right and centre to protect his government from possible censure.

The minority government of Bayrou’s predecessor, Michel Barnier, relied on support from Macron’s centrist camp and his own conservative Les Republicains party.

But the far right and left wing joined forces this month to eject Barnier from office, making him the shortest-lasting prime minister in France’s Fifth Republic, which began in 1958.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2024