Michel Barnier announced this evening a list of 39 ministers. This is a right-leaning executivethe political family from which the French Prime Minister comes, whose first task will be to approve the budget. Many confirmations, from Rachida Dati to Sebastien Lecornu, but many new faces, starting from the conservative with a reputation for being tough Bruno Retailleau who replaces Gérald Darmanin at the Ministry of the Interior, up to the young, only 33 years old, Minister of the Economy Antoine Armand. Strategic head of the powerful Les Républicains group in the Senate since 2014, a firm line on immigration, security and respect for secularism, Retailleau has never stopped denouncing the “laxity” of Macron’s policy on these issues. The new minister has also opposed marriage for all and the end-of-life law wanted by the president. Representatives of the Greens who took to the streets today to demonstrate their dissent to the new executive of the former EU chief negotiator on Brexit accused him of “homophobia” and “racism”.
The new head of French diplomacy is the son of art Jean-Noël Barrot, 41 years old. For him a real meteoric rise towards the halls of power. From digital to minister delegate for Europe, then president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, Barrot, who belongs to the centrists of Modem, will now have to demonstrate that he is able to make his voice heard, specifies the AFP. After only eighteen months in his previous role, he arrived last February at the Quai D’Orsay thanks to a cabinet reshuffle, to replace Laurence Boone. Son of the former minister and European Commissioner Jacques Barrot, he has inherited the quality of being “a convinced European”. Antoine Armand, only 33 years old, is the new minister of Economy, Finance and Industry, while the Budget is up to the former deputy Laurent Saint Martin, who however will report directly to Matignon. Sébastien Lecornu, loyal to the Head of State, will keep his post at Defense, one of the few to benefit from a sharply increasing budget in this context of international crisis. Rachida Dati, a controversial figure of the right, will also keep her portfolio at Culture. Former Socialist MP Didier Migaud, 72, has been appointed Minister of Justice, replacing Eric Dupond-Moretti. Former president of the Court of Auditors and current head of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life, he is the only minister from the left, even though he left active politics in 2010. The government spokesperson will be MP Maud Bregeon, close to Gérald Darmanin, a fervent supporter of nuclear energy. Among the women, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, a MP from the left wing of Macron’s party, has been appointed Minister of Ecological Transition and Energy. MP Annie Genevard, number two of the LR party, has been appointed Minister of Agriculture, replacing Marc Fesneau.