Michel Barnier draws his government from the ranks of Les Républicains and the former presidential majority

On Saturday 21 September, after two weeks of negotiations, Prime Minister Michel Barnier unveiled the composition of the new government: 39 ministers, deputy ministers and secretaries of state, mostly from the Les Républicains (LR) party and the former presidential majority.

The Prime Minister’s task was to form a team that would ‘come together to serve the country’, in the words of the President of the Republic, at a time when the National Assembly is fractured into three blocs (NFP, central bloc and the RN and its allies). Michel Barnier (LR) had declared on 12 September that his future government would certainly be ‘balanced, representative and plural’, but also ‘naturally with his political family’.
After two weeks of tumultuous discussions, the new government is known: LR has inherited ten posts, including three full posts. The rest of the members of the government are mainly drawn from representatives of the parties in Emmanuel Macron’s former majority, Ensemble, MoDem and Horizons.

Bruno Retailleau, President of the LR Senators, becomes Minister of the Interior. Annie Genevard MP is now Minister for Agriculture, Food Sovereignty and Forestry, and Gil Avérous, Mayor of Châteauroux, Divers droite, is appointed Minister for Sport. Patrick Hetzel has been appointed Minister for Higher Education.

From the former presidential majority, Sébastien Lecornu retains his post at the Armed Forces and Rachida Dati remains at the Ministry of Culture. Former ministers include Catherine Vautrin, who will now be Minister for Partnership with the Territories and Decentralisation, Guillaume Kasbarian at the Civil Service and Agnès Pannier-Runacher appointed Minister for the Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention. Jean-Noël Barrot has been promoted to Europe and Foreign Affairs. Benjamin Haddad, LREM MP, has been appointed Minister Delegate for Europe: a graduate of Sciences-Po with a master’s degree in international relations, he was national secretary of the UMP from 2011 to 2014, before joining Emmanuel Macron’s party in 2017.

Antoine Armand, a Renaissance MP, was appointed Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry and Laurent Saint-Martin Minister for the Budget. The budget itself comes directly under the authority of Prime Minister Michel Barnier. Geneviève Darrieussecq has been appointed Minister for Health and Access to Care. Marc Ferracci, MP, has been appointed Minister for Industry, and Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet Minister for Labour. Renaissance MP Anne Genetet has been appointed Minister for Education.

Didier Migaud, Divers gauche, former President of the Cour des Comptes, has been appointed Minister of Justice.

Michel Barnier is due to set out his policy in his general policy statement to the National Assembly on 1 October. The first issue the government will have to tackle is the budget.