Francois Bayrou is the new prime minister of France following Michel Barnier’s resignation.
The centrist politician met President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace early this morning.
The 73-year-old is a crucial partner in Macron’s centrist alliance and has been a well-known figure in French politics for decades.
Image: Emmanuel Macron and Francois Bayrou. Pic: Reuters
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What to know about France’s new Prime Minister?
President Macron’s office said in a statement that Mr Bayrou “has been charged with forming a new government”.
The French government collapsed last week after Mr Barnier lost a vote of no confidence that was prompted by budget disputes.
Mr Barnier decided to use special powers to force a social security budget through the lower house of parliament without a final vote.
A last-minute concession was not enough to win support from the hard-right National Rally (RN).
It was the first time a French government had lost a confidence vote since 1962, and Mr Barnier subsequently tendered his resignation.
He was appointed in September and has become the shortest-serving prime minister in France’s modern Republic, lasting just 90 days in the job.
Image: Michel Barnier lost a vote of no confidence. Pic: Reuters
Mr Barnier was appointed following surprise elections called by President Macron earlier this year, which led to shock results which left the government and parliament in limbo.
The left-wing Popular Front alliance won the most seats – 193 – but it was far from the 289 needed for a majority.
Infighting among that alliance, which consists of seven parties, resulted in it being unable to agree on a candidate for prime minister.
Few expect new PM to last long after Barnier’s tough tenure
Francois Bayrou, a former minister who has run three times for president and started his own political party, has been named as the new French prime minister.
He will start the job immediately, with the job of bringing some calm to the nation’s volatile parliament. He faces a job that is, at best, imposing and, at worst, impossible. He will have to work with President Emmanuel Macron, while also finding common ground between a parliament that is split between politicians from the far left and far right, some of whom loathe the president and will do whatever it takes to undermine him.
Bayrou will also have to persuade a fractious, angry parliament to support a budget at a time when the nation’s public finances are under scrutiny. His predecessor lasted just three months in the job – few expect Bayrou to be in for a long stint.
Although from different parties, Bayrou is a long-standing ally of President Macron. He was the justice minister in the first government after Macron’s election, but then had to resign after being accused of fraud. He was acquitted of those charges earlier this year.
Bayrou, who is 73 years old, leads the Democratic Movement, which he founded in 2007. He has made three unsuccessful runs at the presidency – in 2002, 2007 and 2012.
His rise to the job of prime minister comes as part of the fallout from the summer, when Macron called fresh national elections. The result was a National Assembly that was essentially split between Left, Right and Centre parties, creating gridlock between politicians who could find few areas of consensus. It took two months for Macron to find a candidate for prime minister, Michel Barnier, who seemed palatable to all sides.
Instead, Barnier’s tenure was a clear warning of how tough the job is, and what Bayrou will have to manage.
Mr Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance, which came second in the election, built a loose coalition with right-wing politicians, in particular the Republicans, of which Mr Barnier was a member and who the far-right National Rally had said they could work with.
But both the Popular Front and National Rally came together to bring down Mr Barnier last week.
Because his party does not have a majority, Mr Bayrou’s cabinet will be forced to rely on moderate politicians from the left and the right to be able to stay in power. Some conservatives are also expected to be part of the new government.
Mr Bayrou is expected to put forward his list of ministers in the coming days, but will likely face the same existential difficulties as Mr Barnier in steering legislation through a hung parliament made up of three warring blocs.
Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally party, said they would not be calling for an immediate no-confidence motion against Mr Bayrou.
President Macron has vowed to stay in office until the end of his term in 2027 despite mounting pressure on the 46-year-old to quit.
He previously claimed that far-right and left-wing politicians had united in an “anti-Republican front” and added: “I won’t shoulder other people’s irresponsibility.”
Mr Macron will hope the new prime minister can stave off no-confidence votes until at least July, when France will be able to hold a new parliamentary election.
The current political crisis has lifted French borrowing costs and left a power vacuum in the heart of Europe, as Donald Trump prepares to return to the White House.
Donald Trump has criticised Vladimir Putin and suggested a shift in his stance towards the Russian president after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy before the Pope’s funeral.
The Ukrainian president said the one-on-one talks could prove to be “historic” after pictures showed him sitting opposite Mr Trump, around two feet apart, in the large marble hall inside St Peter’s Basilica.
The US president said he doubted his Russian counterpart’s willingness to end the war after leaving Rome after the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he said “there was no reason” for the Russian president “to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days”.
Image: The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
He added: “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!”
The meeting between the US and Ukrainian leaders was their first face-to-face encounter since a very public row in the Oval Office in February.
Mr Zelenskyy said he had a good meeting with Mr Trump in which they talked about the defence of the Ukrainian people, a full and unconditional ceasefire, and a durable and lasting peace that would prevent the war restarting.
Other images released by the Ukrainian president’s office show Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron were present for part of the talks, which were described as “positive” by the French presidency.
Mr Zelenskyy‘s spokesman said the meeting lasted for around 15 minutes and he and Mr Trump had agreed to hold further discussions later on Saturday.
Image: The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Image: Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet in the Basilica
But the US president left Rome for Washington on Air Force One soon after the funeral without any other talks having taken place.
The Ukrainian president’s office said there was no second meeting in Rome because of the tight schedule of both leaders, although he had separate discussions with Mr Starmer and Mr Macron.
The French president said in a post on X “Ukraine is ready for an unconditional ceasefire” and that a so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, would continue working to achieve a lasting peace.
There was applause from some of the other world leaders in attendance at the Vatican when Mr Zelenskyy walked out of St Peter’s Basilica after stopping in front of the pontiff’s coffin to pay his respects.
Image: Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president met for the first time since their Oval Office row. Pic: Reuters
Sir Tony Brenton, the former British ambassador to Russia, said the event presents diplomatic opportunities, including the “biggest possible meeting” between Mr Trump and the Ukrainian leader.
He told Sky News it could mark “an important step” in starting the peace process between Russia and Ukraine.
Professor Father Francesco Giordano told Sky News the meeting is being called “Pope Francis’s miracle” by members of the clergy, adding: “There’s so many things that happened today – it was just overwhelming.”
The bilateral meeting comes after Mr Trump’s peace negotiator Steve Witkoff held talks with Mr Putin at the Kremlin.
They discussed “the possibility of resuming direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine”, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
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On an extraordinary day, remarkable pictures on the margins that capture what may be a turning point for the world.
In a corner of St Peter’s Basilica before the funeral of Pope Francis, the leaders of America and Ukraine sit facing each other in two solitary chairs.
They look like confessor and sinner except we cannot tell which one is which.
In another, the Ukrainian president seems to be remonstrating with the US president. This is their first encounter since their infamous bust-up in the Oval Office.
Image: The two leaders held talks before attending the Pope’s funeral
Other pictures show the moment their French and British counterparts introduced the two men. There is a palpable sense of nervousness in the way the leaders engage.
We do not know what the two presidents said in their brief meeting.
But in the mind of the Ukrainian leader will be the knowledge President Trump has this week said America will reward Russia for its unprovoked brutal invasion of his country, under any peace deal.
Mr Trump has presented Ukraine and Russia with a proposal and ultimatum so one-sided it could have been written in the Kremlin.
Kyiv must surrender the land Russia has taken by force, Crimea forever, the rest at least for now. And it must submit to an act of extortion, a proposed deal that would hand over half its mineral wealth effectively to America.
Image: The world leaders shared a moment before the service
Afterwards, Zelenskyy said it had been a good meeting that could turn out to be historic “if we reach results together”.
They had talked, he said, about the defence of Ukraine, a full and unconditional ceasefire and a durable and lasting peace that will prevent a war restarting.
The Trump peace proposal includes only unspecified security guarantees for Ukraine from countries that do not include the US. It rules out any membership of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s allies are watching closely to see if Mr Trump will apply any pressure on Vladimir Putin, let alone punish him for recent bloody attacks on Ukraine.
Or will he simply walk away if the proposal fails, blaming Ukrainian intransigence, however outrageously, before moving onto a rapprochement with Moscow.
If he does, America’s role as guarantor of international security will be seen effectively as over.
This could be the week we see the world order as we have known it since the end of the Second World War buried, as well as a pope.