Macron announces France's fourth government of 2024. Is it his last?

French President Emmanuel Macron named a new government Monday evening, putting together a team under his fourth prime minister of the year to drag the EU's second-largest economy out of political crisis.

Having appointed centrist PM Francois Bayrou in mid-December, Macron named a new cabinet including two of Bayrou's predecessors: Elisabeth Borne will serve as education minister and Manuel Valls returned as overseas territories minister. Meanwhile, former interior minister Gerald Darmanin became justice minister.

Both defense minister Sebastien Lecornu and foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot kept their jobs. Lecornu, a 38-year-old loyalist with a keen political nose, has served in every government since Macron's first election as president in 2017.

Also staying in their posts are Conservative interior minister Bruno Retailleau, who has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration, and right-wing culture minister Rachida Dati.

The difficult job of delivering a budget plan for next year falls to Eric Lombard, the 66-year-old head of public-sector lender Caisse des Depots, who was named economy minister.

"I'm very proud of the team we're presenting this evening," Bayrou said on X, adding his "experienced" government would aim to "rebuild trust."

The inclusion of two former prime ministers indicates Macron's desire for a heavyweight government that will encourage stability and not share the fate of Bayrou's predecessor, Michel Barnier, ousted in a no-confidence vote following a standoff over an austerity budget.

'Extreme right in power'

Bayrou had hoped to bring in figures from the left, right and center to protect his government from possible censure in a parliament bitterly and fairly equally divided between those three blocs since Macron called snap legislative elections this summer. 

However, his 35-member team does not include any representatives of the left-wing coalition New Popular Front – leaving left-leaning politicians livid.

"It's not a government, it's a provocation. The extreme right in power under the watchful eye of the extreme right," Socialist leader Olivier Faure said on X.

Macron will gather Bayrou's team on January 3 for a first cabinet meeting, the presidency said. The priority for Bayrou, 73, is to make sure his government can survive a no-confidence vote and that it passes a cost-cutting budget for 2025.

The unexpected comeback of Valls, premier from 2014 to 2016, as the head of the overseas territories ministry indicates the importance of the post after authorities were strongly criticized for their response to the deadly cyclone on the Indian Ocean territory of Mayotte, which killed at least 35 people.

Darmanin, Bertrand and Le Pen

Darmanin, who served as interior minister under three premiers between 2020 and 2024 but left the cabinet in Barnier's September reshuffle, had long been known to covet the post of foreign minister. 

However, after days of intense discussions Macron decided to keep Barrot in that post – and Darmanin may not have been his first choice for the justice role, if Xavier Bertrand is to be believed. 

Bertrand, a heavyweight center-right politician who was a strong contender for prime minister before Barnier got the job, announced just before Macron's official cabinet unveiling that he would not be part of the government. 

He alleged the cabinet had been formed with the implicit "backing" of far-right leader Marine Le Pen's National Rally, which will play a key role in ensuring its survival. Bertrand and National Rally have a bitter history, since a 2021 regional election in which he proudly announced he "smashed the jaws" of Le Pen's party in a National Rally stronghold. 

"The prime minister informed me this morning, contrary to what he had proposed yesterday, that he was no longer in a position to entrust me with responsibility for the justice ministry due to opposition from National Rally," Bertrand said.

The prime minister denied the far right had influenced the composition of his government.

"It is not true that any influence whatsoever was exerted on me," he told BFMTV.

'Government of last chance'

Le Pen warned that Bayrou's government "will have to change its methods, listen to its opponents and build a budget that takes account of the choices expressed at the ballot box."

"Nothing can be done or decided behind the backs of 11 million French people," she said on X, referring to her supporters.

The announcement came as France observed a day of mourning for victims in cyclone-hit Mayotte, France's poorest overseas territory. 

Bayrou was appointed on December 13. He is the sixth prime minister of Macron's presidency. 

Le Pen suggested Macron has been weakened by months of political crisis, telling Le Parisien last week she was "preparing for an early presidential election." Macron's second and final term is due to end by April 2027, but analysts have warned that with France's constitution forbidding a new legislative election before June, any further government collapse would increase the pressure on him to resign.

In an editorial for Le Figaro, Vincent Tremolet de Villers wrote: "Macron-Bayrou, the government of the last chance."