Macron prepares to name ministers
Conservatives: He’s ‘dynamiting’ politics • Hamon: This gov’t not for leftists
PARIS (Reuters) – A leading French conservative accused President Emmanuel Macron of “dynamiting” the political landscape on Tuesday as he put together a government that is expected to include former rivals on both the Left and Right.
Macron wants to break through the left-right divide that has dominated the euro zone’s second-largest economy for decades, and so is drawing in figures from outside his yearold centrist Republic on the Move (REM) party to complete his list of ministers, expected on Wednesday.
“We want to bring people together, beyond old divides that have become pointless,” REM Secretary-General Richard Ferrand told France Inter radio.
The divide-and-conquer tactics by the centrist Macron, elected on May 7, are spreading alarm in the Socialist Party and the conservative Republicans (LR). They fear he will poach more of their leading figures as he tries to widen his base before June’s parliamentary elections.
In a sign of that concern, LR senior lawmaker Francois Baroin disowned party colleague Edouard Philippe for accepting Macron’s offer of the job of prime minister on Monday. FRENCH PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron wears a Paris 2024 pin at the Elysee Palace yesterday following a meeting with International Olympic Committee officials. Paris is seeking to host that year’s summer games.
“What Emmanuel Macron is proposing is dynamiting, not political reshaping,” Baroin told BFM TV.
Baroin is leading LR’s campaign for the parliamentary elections, which will be key for his party’s future as well as Macron’s chances of carrying out his pro-business, pro-EU policies.
Benoit Hamon, who gathered just over 6% of the votes for the Socialist Party in the first round of the presidential election in April, said left-wingers do not belong in the upcoming government.
“Who can think that the Left will pull itself together if it is part of a coalition led by a member of The Republicans party?” he said.
But the list of those tipped to be part of the government included veteran Socialists, as well as conservatives, centrists and newcomers to French politics. Macron has said he wants a team of maximum 15 ministers, fewer than in the outgoing Socialist administration.
Initially expected for late Tuesday, the announcement of who will be part of the government was postponed to 3 p.m. Wednesday. The president’s office said Macron wanted to allow time for thorough checks on the ministers’ background, including their tax situation, and to avoid conflicts of interest.
Among the names being touted by French media are three veteran socialists: former Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe, the outgoing Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and ex-World Trade Organization boss Pascal Lamy.
There are also centrists, including MoDem Party leader Francois Bayrou and EU lawmaker Sylvie Goulard, a former adviser to former European Commission president Romano Prodi.
Conservatives being floated include LR lawmakers Bruno le Maire and Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet as well as Thierry Breton, who was economy minister under conservative president Jacques Chirac.
An overwhelming majority want politicians from the Left, Right and Center to be included in the government, a poll showed on Tuesday.
But in a sign of how little known France’s new prime minister is, 57% of those surveyed said they did not know him well enough to say if his appointment is a good or a bad thing, while just under a third said this is a good thing.
Some conservative lawmakers said they doubted Macron could poach any big names. “The heavyweights won’t give in,” a source close to former prime minister Alain Juppe said.