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POLITICS

Who’s who in the new French government

France has a new government after president Emmanuel Macron conducted a - limited - reshuffle of his ministers. Here's the complete list of the new government.

Published: 20 July 2023 16:45 CEST
Updated: 22 July 2023 13:48 CEST
Who's who in the new French government
The new cabinet will meet on Friday morning. Photo by Geoffroy Van der Hasselt/AFP

Many of the biggest names of the government are remaining in post after Macron opted for a fairly limited remaniement (reshuffle) on Thursday.

Despite widespread rumours that she would lose her job after the bitterly divisive pension reform, Elisabeth Borne remains in post as prime minister. Likewise finance minister Bruno Le Maire – Macron’s longest-serving minister who has been in the same role since 2017 – and interior minister Gérald Darmanin.

Although many of the newcomers are not well known names, many of them are Macron loyalists, with an emphasis on political experience rather than the appointment of outside experts to ministries.

The Council of Ministers – complete with newly appointed ministers – will meet on Friday morning, where Macron will address the new team. He then heads off to the Pacific for a series of diplomatic meetings, while the Assemblée nationale completes its final sessions before the summer break.

The month of August normally sees limited political activity in France as the country heads off on holiday, with la rentrée in September marking the presentation of a new programme of policies from the ruling party. 

Here are the new ministers;

Gabriel Attal – Education minister. Not a newcomer to government, the 34-year-old Attal has previously been government spokesman and public accounts minister. He replaced Pap Ndiaye – an outside appointment who previously worker as an academic and was best known for his work on race relations. 

Aurélien Rousseau – Health minister. A technocrat who previously ran the office for Elisabeth Borne, Rousseau was in charge of the Paris regional health authority during the pandemic. Unusually in a country where the health minister is often a doctor, he has no medical qualifications. He replaces François Braun, a civil servant who had previously run the ambulance service. 

Aurore Bergé – Solidarity minister. Considered a close ally of Macron and the leader of his party in the Assemblée nationale, Bergé becomes the junior minister at the health ministry, the number two to Aurélien Rousseau. She replaces Jean-Christophe Comb, the former head of the Red Cross in France, in the role.

Sabrina Agresti-Roubache – minister for urban affairs. A relative newcomer to parliament, she was elected MP for Bouches-du-Rhône (including Marseille) in 2022. Reputed to be close to Macron, she was formerly a producer who worked on the fabulously trashy Netflix series Marseille – a political drama centred around the (fictional) mayor of Marseille.

Bérangère Couillard – equalities minister. Moving from the environment ministry is MP for Gironde. She replaces Isabelle Rome.

Sarah El Haïry – Biodiversity Minister. Former youth minister Sarah El Haïry moves to the newly created role of biodiversity minister, part of the gradual expansion of the environment ministry. 

Philippe Vigier – minister for overseas territories. Vigier is an MP for the centrist party MoDem, the major allies of Macron’s party in parliament. He replaces Jean-François Carenco.

Patrice Vergriete – housing minister. Currently the mayor of Dunkirk, Vergriete has a background in urban planning and housing.

Thomas Cazenave – budget minister. The MP for the Gironde area (around Bordeaux) steps into the junior finance ministry role vacated by Gabriel Attal.

Fadila Khattabi – Minister for disabilities. Former president of the commission for social affairs, she replaces Geneviève Darrieussecq in the role.

Social economy minister. The previous holder of the post, Marlène Schiappa will leave the government after a series of controversies – the most serious being the ongoing investigation into the use of funds from a charitable organisation designed to combat extremism which she was responsible for running. She also made headlines when she appeared – clothed – in Playboy magazine. Her responsibilities will be divided between other junior ministers in the finance ministry.

The rest of the ministers remain in their previous positions. They are;

Prime Minister – Élisabeth Borne
Finance Minister – Bruno Le Maire
Interior Minister – Gérald Darmanin
Foreign Minister – Catherine Colonna
Government spokesperson – Olivier Véran 
Environment Minister – Christophe Béchu
Minister of Energy Transition – Agnès Pannier-Runacher
Agriculture Minister – Marc Fesneau
Justice Minister – Éric Dupond-Moretti
Defence Minister – Sébastien Lecornu
Labour Minister – Olivier Dussopt
Culture Minister – Rima Abdul Malak
Minister of higher education – Sylvie Retailleau
Minister of Public functions – Stanislas Guerini
Minister of sports and the Olympics/ Paralympics – Amélie Oudéa-Castéra

Junior ministers

Minister for relations with Parliament – Franck Reister
Minister for childhood- Charlotte Caubel
Minister of the seas – Hervé Berville
Minister of industry – Roland Lescure
Minister of digitalisation and telecommunications – Jean-Nöel Barrot
Minister of small businesses and tourism – Olivia Grégoire
Minister of territorial collectivities and rurality – Dominique Faure
Minister of citizenship – Sonia Backès
Minister of external commerce and France abroad – Olivier Becht
Europe Minister – Laurence Boone
Minister of development and the Francophone world/ international partners – Chrysoula Zacharopoulou
Minister of remembrance of former soldiers – Patricia Mirallès
Minister of youth education and training – Carole Grandjean
Minister of transport – Clément Beaune
Minister for healthcare workers – Agnès Firmin le Bodo 

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FRANCE AND GERMANY

France’s Macron visits Germany to soothe ties and warn of far-right peril

Emmanuel Macron on Sunday embarks on the first state visit to Germany by a French president in a quarter century, seeking to ease recent tensions and also warn of the dangers of the far right ahead of EU elections.

Published: 26 May 2024 08:19 CEST
France's Macron visits Germany to soothe ties and warn of far-right peril

Macron on his three-day, four-stop visit will seek to emphasise the historic importance of the postwar relationship between the two key EU states, as France next month commemorates 80 years since the D-Day landings that marked the beginning of the end of German World War II occupation.

But all has not been smooth in a relationship often seen as the engine of the EU, with Berlin taken aback by Macron’s refusal to rule out sending troops to Ukraine and German officials said to be uneasy at times about his often-theatrical style of foreign policy.

In a question-and-answer session on social media with young people earlier this month, Macron enlisted help from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz when asked if the Franco-German “couple” was still working.

“Hello dear friends, long live French-German friendship!” Scholz said in French in a video on Macron’s X feed. “Thank you Olaf! I very much agree with you,” Macron replied in heavily accented German.

While Macron is a frequent visitor to Berlin, the trip will be the first state visit in 24 years following a trip by Jacques Chirac in 2000 and the sixth since the first postwar state visit by Charles de Gaulle in in 1962.

Macron’s trip will begin Sunday afternoon with a day of talks with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier, whose role is largely ceremonial compared with the might of the French presidency.

On Tuesday he will travel to Dresden in the former East Germany to deliver a speech on Europe at a European festival. Tuesday sees Macron in the western German city of Munster and later in Meseberg outside Berlin for talks with Scholz and a Franco-German joint cabinet meeting.

‘Ways of compromise’

The trip comes two weeks ahead of European elections where polls show that in a major potential embarrassment for Macron, his coalition is trailing well behind the far right and may struggle to even reach third place.

The speech in Dresden, a city where the German far right Alternative for Germany (AfD) garners considerable support, will likely see Macron warn of the danger the far right poses to Europe.

In a keynote address on foreign policy last month, Macron issued a dire warning about the threats to Europe in a changing world in the wake of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

“Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die,” Macron said. “It can die and this depends only on our choices.”

Officials from both sides are at pains to emphasise that while there are periodic tensions on specific issues, the fundamental basis of the relationship remains sound.

But Macron’s refusal to rule out sending troops to Ukraine sparked an unusually acidic response from Scholz that Germany had no such plans. Germany also does not share Macron’s enthusiasm for a European strategic autonomy less dependent on the United States.

“The Franco-German relationship is about disagreeing and trying to find ways of compromise,” said Helene Miard-Delacroix, specialist in German history at the Sorbonne university in Paris.

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