President Emmanuel Macron of France convened a brand new, smaller cupboard for the primary time on Friday, a day after a authorities reshuffle that introduced in a handful of recent ministers — together with one poached from the precise and a Europe-focused international minister — however that left most key positions untouched.
“A united government,” Mr. Macron stated earlier than digital camera crews have been ushered out forward of the cupboard assembly, which was held in a noticeably smaller room than normal. “Let’s get to work.”
Many of the 14 ministers across the desk have been longtime pillars of Mr. Macron’s authorities. Gérald Darmanin, Mr. Macron’s tough-talking inside minister; Bruno Le Maire, his perennial financial system minister; and Sébastien Lecornu, the protection minister — all former members of the mainstream conservative celebration— have remained in place. Éric Dupond-Moretti, the justice minister, who was not too long ago cleared in an abuse-of-power case, stayed as properly.
Mr. Macron signaled a concentrate on Europe by appointing Stéphane Séjourné, a high ally of the French chief within the European Parliament, as international minister. A vote for European Parliament seats scheduled in June is predicted to be a tough battle in opposition to the French far proper, on condition that the National Rally got here forward in vote percentages within the final election in 2019.
The new cupboard was introduced on Thursday night simply days after Mr. Macron appointed Gabriel Attal, 34, as the brand new prime minister, an try and reinvigorate his second time period after a yr of profitable, however politically bruising, pension and immigration overhauls.
The new cupboard consists of fewer of the little-known technocrats or members of civil society that Mr. Macron has typically favored previously. Instead, it consists of extra veteran politicians, a lot of them on the precise, persevering with a yearslong shift in that course by Mr. Macron.
Mr. Attal, France’s youngest and first brazenly homosexual prime minister, rejected criticism that Mr. Macron was reneging on the promise that he made when he was first elected in 2017 to transcend the nation’s left-right political divide.
“What I want is action, action, action, and results, results, results,” Mr. Attal informed TF1 tv on Thursday evening.
“I’m not here to ask my ministers to empty their pockets to show me what political party card they carry,” Mr. Attal added. “What I’m interested in is having ministers who want to address French people’s problems.”
The most sudden announcement was the appointment of Rachida Dati as tradition minister. Ms. Dati is a high-profile, outspoken conservative with little prior cultural experience who served as justice minister from 2007 to 2009 beneath former President Nicolas Sarkozy and is at the moment the mayor of the Seventh Arrondissement of Paris. She can be beneath investigation in a corruption case involving Carlos Ghosn, the disgraced former chief govt of the automobile producers Nissan and Renault.
Ms. Dati had been extraordinarily essential of Mr. Macron previously, calling his celebration a group of “traitors from the left and traitors from the right.” She was expelled from her celebration, the right-wing Republicans, after her appointment on Thursday.
Ms. Dati’s predecessor, Rima Abdul Malak, was publicly rebuked by Mr. Macron final month over the destiny of Gérard Depardieu, the French actor who’s dealing with renewed scrutiny over sexual assault accusations.
Ms. Abdul Malak had stated that disciplinary proceedings would decide whether or not Mr. Depardieu ought to lose his Legion of Honor, France’s highest award, over sexist feedback that he made in a tv documentary. But Mr. Macron has staunchly defended the actor, condemning the “manhunt” in opposition to him.
“I remained free, free in my commitments, free in the positions I took,” Ms. Abdul Malak stated on Friday earlier than handing the ministry over to Ms. Dati.
Clément Beaune, previously a high Macron protégé main the transportation ministry, was additionally not noted of the brand new cupboard. That was extensively perceived as a punishment for his reported function as ringleader of a short-lived riot amongst left-leaning ministers, who balked on the authorities’s compromises with the precise on the powerful immigration overhaul.
The new international minister, Mr. Séjourné, just isn’t a profession diplomat however he was the longtime chief of Renew Europe, a gaggle of European liberals within the European Parliament. He can be the secretary common of Mr. Macron’s centrist Renaissance Party in France, and he’s Mr. Attal’s former accomplice.
“The advent of Europe will be my priority,” Mr. Séjourné stated at a joint news convention on Friday along with his predecessor, Catherine Colonna.
While the brand new cupboard, excluding Mr. Attal, has an equal variety of women and men, Ms. Colonna’s departure implies that essentially the most highly effective ministries at the moment are all held by males.
The crew can be a lot smaller than Mr. Macron’s earlier cupboard, which ballooned to about 40 members. He achieved this partly by merging some obligations.
Catherine Vautrin, a right-wing politician from Reims who grew to become the brand new labor minister, can even be in control of well being. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, who was previously in control of sports activities, is now additionally main France’s massive schooling ministry — along with overseeing preparations for the upcoming Summer Olympics.
Several junior positions will probably be stuffed within the coming days to assist and complement the totally fledged ministers, Mr. Macron’s workplace stated. But labor unions representing lecturers and well being professionals shortly expressed doubts that they’d have the undivided consideration of their new overseers.
“Does this mean that national education is going to be stuck between beach volleyball and hammer throwing?” Sophie Vénétitay, the chief of one of many foremost instructor unions, stated on Franceinfo radio.
Source: www.nytimes.com