Macron's new cabinet tilts to the right with old pillars and some surprises
President Emmanuel Macron of France convened a new, smaller Cabinet for the first time on Friday, a day after a government reshuffle that brought in a handful of new ministers – including one poached from the right and a Europe-oriented foreign minister – but who left most key positions untouched.
“A united government,” Macron said before camera crews were led outside for the Cabinet meeting, which was held in a noticeably smaller room than usual. “Let's get started.”
Many of the fourteen ministers around the table have long been pillars of Macron's government. Gérald Darmanin, Macron's callous interior minister; Bruno Le Maire, his eternal Minister of Economy; and Sébastien Lecornu, the defense minister – all former members of the mainstream conservative party – have remained in place. Éric Dupond-Moretti, the Minister of Justice, who was recently acquitted in an abuse of power case, also stayed.
Mr Macron signaled a focus on Europe by appointing Stéphane Séjourné, a top ally of the French leader in the European Parliament, as foreign minister. A vote for the European Parliament seats, scheduled for June, is expected to be an uphill battle against the French far-right, given that the National Rally came out ahead in terms of voting percentages in the last election in 2019.
The new cabinet was announced on Thursday evening, just days after Macron appointed 34-year-old Gabriel Attal as the new prime minister, an attempt to revive his second term after a year of successful but politically painful reforms in the area of pensions and immigration.
The new cabinet includes fewer of the little-known technocrats or members of civil society that Macron has sometimes favored in the past. Instead, it includes more experienced politicians, many on the right, and continues Mr Macron's years-long shift in that direction.
Mr Attal, France's youngest and first openly gay prime minister, rejected criticism that Mr Macron was reneging on the promise he made when he was first elected in 2017 to transcend the country's left-right political divide.
“What I want is action, action, action and results, results, results,” said Mr. Attal TF1 television on Thursday evenings.
“I am not here to ask my ministers to empty their pockets and show me which political party card they are carrying,” Mr Attal added. “What I am interested in is that there are ministers who want to tackle the problems of the French.”
The most unexpected announcement was the appointment of Rachida Dati as Minister of Culture. Ms. Dati is a high-profile, outspoken conservative with little prior cultural expertise. She served as Minister of Justice under former President Nicolas Sarkozy from 2007 to 2009 and is currently mayor of the Seventh Arrondissement of Paris. She is too is being investigated in a corruption case involving Carlos Ghosn, the disgraced former CEO of carmakers Nissan and Renault.
Ms Dati has been extremely critical of Mr Macron in the past, call his party a collection of 'traitors to the left and traitors to the right'. After her appointment on Thursday, she was expelled from her party, the right-wing Republicans.
Ms Dati's predecessor, Rima Abdul Malak, was publicly reprimanded by Mr Macron last month over the fate of Gérard Depardieu, the French actor under renewed scrutiny over sexual assault allegations.
Ms Abdul Malak had said disciplinary procedures would determine whether Mr Depardieu would lose his Legion of Honour, France's highest award, over sexist comments he made in a television documentary. But Macron has staunchly defended the actor and condemned the “manhunt” against him.
“I remained free, free in my obligations, free in the positions I took,” Ms Abdul Malak said on Friday before handing over the ministry to Ms Dati.
Clément Beaune, previously a key Macron protégé who headed the Transport Ministry, was also left out of the new cabinet. That was widely seen as punishment for his reported role as leader of a short-lived rebellion among left-wing ministers who opposed the government's compromises with the right on the tough immigration reform.
The new Foreign Minister, Mr Séjourné, is not a career diplomat, but he was a long-time leader of Renew Europe, a group of European liberals in the European Parliament. He is also the secretary general of Macron's centrist Renaissance party in France, and he is Mr Attal's former partner.
“The arrival of Europe will be my priority,” Mr Séjourné said on Friday at a joint press conference with his predecessor, Catherine Colonna.
While the new cabinet has an equal number of men and women, with the exception of Mr Attal, Ms Colonna's departure means that the most powerful ministries are now all in the hands of men.
The team is also much smaller than Macron's previous cabinet, which grew to around 40 members. He has achieved this partly by merging some responsibilities.
Catherine Vautrin, a right-wing politician from Reims who became the new Labor Minister, will also be responsible for health care. Amélie Oudéa-Castéra, previously in charge of sport, now also heads France's large Ministry of Education – in addition to overseeing preparations for the upcoming Summer Olympics.
Several junior positions will be filled in the coming days to support and complement the full ministers, Mr Macron's office said. But unions representing teachers and health care workers quickly expressed doubts about whether they would get the undivided attention of their new supervisors.
“Does this mean that national education will be stuck between beach volleyball and hammer throwing?” Sophie Vénétitay, the leader of one of the main teachers' unions, said on Franceinfo radio.