Barnier reveals his ministers in a cabinet dominated by Macron supporters and with support for the right

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier presented his new government on Saturday, a team dominated by ministers from Together for the Republic, the coalition led by President Emmanuel Macron, although with a significant presence of the conservative party The Republicans.

There are 17 ministers, including seven members of Together for the Republic, three from the Republicans, two more from the right and two from the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem) party.

Bruno Retailleau will be Minister of the Interior, Jean-Noël Barrot will be Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antoine Armand will be Minister of Economy and Finance and Agnès Pannier-Runacher will be Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy and Climate.

Rachida Dati will continue to head the Culture department and Sébastien Lecornu will remain as Minister of the Armed Forces. The first Council of Ministers with the new formation is scheduled for Monday at 3 p.m., according to the Elysée Palace.

The absence of heavyweights from the last governments of the Macron era, such as Gérald Darmanin or Bruno Le Maire, is notable. “I wish the government led by Michel Barnier every success,” Darmanin wrote on X.

Among the reactions, the far-right leader Marine Le Pen stands out, who considers it a “transitional” government and has defended the need for “a change” in French politics. “This transitional government is the consequence of the quagmire generated by the unnatural alliances created in the last legislative elections,” she said.

Le Pen’s prime ministerial candidate, Jordan Bardella, believes that this government “has no future” and has denounced “the return of Macronism through the back door.”

From the left, the former candidate of the New Popular Front for Prime Minister, Lucie Castets, has criticised that “this evening democracy has been humiliated.” “We were promised a government of harmony and we have a hard-right government,” she argued in X.

The leader of La France Insoumise, the main party of the New Popular Front, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has advocated “getting rid of the government as soon as possible.” “It has no legitimacy and no future,” he said.

Some 3,200 people demonstrated against the appointment of Barnier as Prime Minister after the victory of the New Popular Front in the last legislative elections, although without an absolute majority.