Is Michel Barnier’s cabinet really conservative?

Emmanuel Macron’s new government marks, in the words of the BBC, ‘a decisive shift to the right’. That is also the view of Le Monde, the newspaper of the French left, which quotes Socialist party chairman Oliver Faure’s description of it as ‘a reactionary government that gives democracy the finger’.

This government is not right wing. To quote Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, ‘this “new” government marks the return of Macronism through a back door.’ Eighteen of the 39 ministers are Macronists including those responsible for education, finance, foreign affairs, Europe and defence. Another presidential loyalist is Agnès Pannier-Runacher, the minister for ecological transition, who hates Marine Le Pen’s National Rally so much she refuses to shake the hands of its 126 MPs. Ten ministers are republicans while the rest pretty much hail from a range of centre-left and -right parties. There are a handful of conservative ministers whose views run counter to the progressive culture that dominates Paris but they have been handed for the most part junior positions in the cabinet.