PARIS | French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday appointed a seasoned diplomat, Catherine Colonna, at the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and brought into the government personalities from civil society, three weeks before the battle for the legislative elections.
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A career diplomat, Ms. Colonna, 66, is the current French ambassador to London.
Among the other members of the government led by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and announced on Friday by the secretary general of the presidency, are a loyal support of Mr. Macron, Sébastien Lecornu, at the Ministry of the Armed Forces. He was already part of the previous government at the Overseas post.
But also Pap Ndiaye, who directs the French National Museum of the History of Immigration. Appointed to Education, this 55-year-old academic is a specialist in the social history of the United States and minorities. The school is one of the three major projects of Emmanuel Macron’s new five-year term.
In addition, a Franco-Lebanese, Rima Abdul Malak, was appointed Minister of Culture, a remarkable rise for this 40-year-old specialist in performing arts: she spent the first ten years of her life in Beirut in the midst of civil war, before leaving arrive in Lyon (south-east) with his parents, his brother and his sister.
The new government, equal, with 14 women and 14 men, also includes several heavyweights who have been renewed, including Bruno Le Maire in the Economy and Gérard Darmanin in the Interior.
Now formed, more than three weeks after the re-election of President Macron on April 24, this government will have to fight the legislative battle of June 12 and 19 during which the presidential party will try to obtain a majority once again in the Assembly. national.
The first Council of Ministers will be held on Monday around the liberal centrist president.
The new executive will be faced with a particularly busy and difficult national and international agenda with the war in Ukraine, unprecedented inflation since the introduction of the euro and sluggish growth.
French “concerned”
In the opposition, the pressure on the executive had increased in recent days with criticism of the time taken to appoint a new government after the re-election of Mr. Macron.
The far-right candidate Marine Le Pen had judged Thursday on the BFMTV channel “particularly abnormal” the absence of government “when we know the daily situation of the French”, confronted with the impact of inflation.
By appointing Elisabeth Borne, a technocrat from the left and several times minister, on Monday, the head of state played on continuity while striving to send a message to the reformist left without frightening the right-wing opposition.
The French press spoke of a “choice of reason”, efficiency and continuity as Ms. Borne, 61, was successively Minister of Transport, Ecology and Labor during the first five-year term of Mr. Macron, one of the few to appear there since the beginning of his presidency in 2017.
The Head of State has promised, for this second term, to take into account the anger expressed by many French people during the popular movement of “yellow vests”, revolted against his fiscal and social policy, and to change the method.
The context is tense: according to a recent survey by the Ifop institute, a large majority of French people (77%) say they fear a social explosion in the coming months.
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