France’s new prime minister François Bayrou has selected Eric Lombard, head of state-backed financial group Caisse des Dépôts, as finance minister, handing him the key role of trying to enact a budget for next year. Lombard will be tasked with coming up with a taxation and spending plan for 2025 that can be approved by France’s raucous hung parliament, while also starting to repairs the country’s degraded public finances.
Bayrou’s predecessor, Michel Barnier, was ousted by the National Assembly in a vote of no confidence earlier this month because of opposition from leftwing and far-right political parties to his deficit-cutting budget. On Monday Bayrou set the ambitious goal of trying to get as close as possible to Barnier’s target of reducing France’s deficit to 5 per cent of GDP by the end of 2025, down from more than 6 per cent this year. “I think we need to find something around 5 , a little more than 5, that will enable us to reach an agreement and strike a balance,” he told BFM TV. Bayrou said “the priority should be on cutting unproductive public spending”, adding that companies could be asked to pay higher taxes for a “temporary period”. Members of Bayrou’s cabinet were unveiled on Monday after days of wrangling between him and President Emmanuel Macron, who officially names the ministers after recommendations from the premier. Macron and Bayrou are under pressure to end political turmoil in France by creating a government that can survive and pass crucial measures in the divided parliament. France is on its fourth prime minister this year, an unprecedented level of churn in France’s Fifth Republic, which was founded in 1958. Barnier’s administration only lasted three months, making him the shortest-serving premier. Brussels and financial markets have been scrutinising France to see if it can begin to reduce its deficit, which is far above the EU limit of 3 per cent of GD