France unveils a more right-wing government after deadlock
Lawmaker Antoine Armand named finance minister
Jean-Noel Barrot promoted to foreign minister
Hard-right Bruno Retailleau becomes interior minister
Adds more from ministerial announcements, finance minister quote in paragraph 6
By Michel Rose and Mathieu Rosemain
PARIS, Sept 21 (Reuters) -France unveiled a new government on Saturday that aims to strike a fine balance between right-wingers and centrists, as Prime Minister Michel Barnier hopes to break political deadlock following snap elections that delivered a hung parliament.
After 2-1/2 months of political uncertainty since centrist President Emmanuel Macron's surprise decision to call early elections, Barnier has put together a cabinet he hopes will find cross-party support in the fragmented parliament.
With few political heavyweights, his team includes one of the leaders of the conservative party of former President Nicolas Sarkozy, Bruno Retailleau, who negotiated the coveted interior ministry as the price for support in parliament.
However, showing the government's fragility, the prestigious job of finance minister was given to a little-known 33 year-old, Antoine Armand of Macron's party, having been turned down by more senior politicians.
The public finances portfolios, shared with new budget minister Laurent Saint-Martin, will have the unenviable task of putting together a budget bill before January, at a time France is struggling to contain a spiralling budget deficit.
"We must cut public spending and make it more efficient," Armand told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper in an interview published on Saturday. "If the solution was to raise taxes, France would have long been the world's top superpower."
'CONCESSIONS AND MANOEUVRING'
But despite the entry of 10 politicians from Barnier's conservative Republicans (LR) party in cabinet, Macron kept a number of outgoing ministers in key posts. Only one left-wing politician joined cabinet, Didier Migaud as justice minister.
Jean-Noel Barrot, the outgoing Europe minister, was promoted to foreign minister.
Sebastien Lecornu will stay on as defence minister.
Macron named Barnier, the European Union's former Brexit negotiator and a 73-year-old veteran politician, as prime minister earlier this month, but the lengthy talks he had to lead to pull together a team were an illustration of the tough tasks ahead.
The centrist and conservative parties managed to join forces, but will depend on others, and in particular Marine Le Pen's far right National Rally (RN), to stay in power and get bills adopted by a very fractured parliament.
"The centrist government is de facto a minority administration," Eurointelligence analysts said in a note. Its ministers "will not only have to agree amongst each other but also will need votes from opposition parties for its bills to pass in the assembly. This means offering even more concessions and manoeuvring."
The RN gave tacit support to Barnier's premiership, but reserved the right to back out at any point if its concerns over immigration, security and other issues were not met.
"I'm angry to see a government that looks set to recycle all the election losers," Mathilde Panot, who leads the hard-left LFI group of lawmakers, told TF1 television.
Additional reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Tassilo Hummel; Writing by Ingrid Melander;
Editing by Timothy Heritage and Helen Popper
Latest News
Disclaimer: The XM Group entities provide execution-only service and access to our Online Trading Facility, permitting a person to view and/or use the content available on or via the website, is not intended to change or expand on this, nor does it change or expand on this. Such access and use are always subject to: (i) Terms and Conditions; (ii) Risk Warnings; and (iii) Full Disclaimer. Such content is therefore provided as no more than general information. Particularly, please be aware that the contents of our Online Trading Facility are neither a solicitation, nor an offer to enter any transactions on the financial markets. Trading on any financial market involves a significant level of risk to your capital.
All material published on our Online Trading Facility is intended for educational/informational purposes only, and does not contain – nor should it be considered as containing – financial, investment tax or trading advice and recommendations; or a record of our trading prices; or an offer of, or solicitation for, a transaction in any financial instruments; or unsolicited financial promotions to you.
Any third-party content, as well as content prepared by XM, such as: opinions, news, research, analyses, prices and other information or links to third-party sites contained on this website are provided on an “as-is” basis, as general market commentary, and do not constitute investment advice. To the extent that any content is construed as investment research, you must note and accept that the content was not intended to and has not been prepared in accordance with legal requirements designed to promote the independence of investment research and as such, it would be considered as marketing communication under the relevant laws and regulations. Please ensure that you have read and understood our Notification on Non-Independent Investment. Research and Risk Warning concerning the foregoing information, which can be accessed here.
