Paris, France:

Francois Bayrou, one of few political heavyweights to have stood by French President Emmanuel Macron since he came to power in 2017, now faces his biggest challenge after finally being promoted to prime minister.

Bayrou, 73, heads the liberal Democratic Movement (MoDem) party which is allied to, but not part of, Macron’s centrist force and has supported the president ever since his victorious 2017 election campaign.

Three times a presidential candidate himself, in 2002, 2007 and 2012, and long cited as an obvious choice for Macron as head of government, he finally has his chance.

Bayrou was acquitted in February after a seven-year-long case over the fraudulent employment of parliamentary assistants by his party, the judge ruling that he was owed the “benefit of the doubt”.

Bayrou was named justice minister by Macron when he took the presidency in 2017.

He resigned the same year when the legal case was opened against him, but remained a key behind-the-scenes ally. His acquittal opened up a potential return to government.

He was regarded as the most likely candidate by commentators, even though his acquittal is still subject to an appeal by prosecutors.

Bayrou will have to navigate a tricky course as the sixth prime minister of Macron’s presidency after parliament toppled Michel Barnier on December 4.

Each successive premier has served for a shorter period than their predecessor and, given the composition of the National Assembly lower house, there is no guarantee that Barnier’s successor will last any longer than the three months that the right-winger was in office.

‘He hates him’

Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure, whose forces could prove useful for Macron in ensuring the stability of the next government, said on Wednesday he opposed naming Bayrou as he would embody “continuity”. 

Bayrou will also have to navigate hostility from the still-influential former right-wing French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

According to one source, “the priority for Sarko is anyone but Bayrou”.

Sarkozy, who still holds sway on the right despite criminal convictions since leaving office, even held talks with Macron at the Elysee on Sunday to make clear his feelings, a ministerial source, asking not to be named, told AFP.

“He hates him,” another source on the right added, saying Sarkozy’s hostility towards Bayrou dates back to his support for Socialist Francois Hollande in the run-off of the 2012 presidential elections after he was eliminated in the first round.

“He (Sarkozy) is totally off the leash on the subject,” added a pro-Macron lawmaker.

Bayrou has enjoyed a long and varied political career, which has seen him work with former right-wing presidents Valery Giscard d’Estaing and Jacques Chirac before backing Hollande in 2012.

Mayor of the southwestern city of Pau, Bayrou is a practising Catholic but also a staunch supporter of France’s secular system. 

He gained notoriety during the 2002 presidential campaign when he slapped on the face a child who tried to pick his pocket.

He won less than seven percent of the vote and was eliminated in the first round.

The father of six children, Bayrou is also the author of a biography of the 16th- and 17th-century French king Henry IV.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New French Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
| Photo Credit: AP

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier said on Wednesday (September 11, 2024) that he will form his new government next week, potentially capping one period of political uncertainty ahead of a likely fight over the 2025 budget.

President Emmanuel Macron picked Mr. Barnier, a 73-year-old conservative and former Brexit negotiator, to lead the government two months after a snap legislative election called by Mr. Macron resulted in a leftist alliance winning the most votes but falling short of an absolute majority.

Watch:Who is Michel Barnier, France’s new PM?

Mr. Barnier has said he would defend some of the President’s key policies and toughen the government’s immigration stance. His government will be tasked with steering reforms and the budget through a hung parliament, amid pressure from the European Commission and bond markets for France to reduce its deficit.

French lawmakers on March 4 overwhelmingly approved a bill to enshrine abortion rights in France’s constitution, making it the only country to explicitly guarantee a woman’s right to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy.

The historic move was proposed by President Emmanuel Macron as a way to prevent the kind of rollback of abortion rights seen in the United States in recent years, and the vote during a special joint session of parliament drew a long-standing ovation among lawmakers.

The measure was approved in a 780-72 vote in the Palace of Versailles. Abortion enjoys wide support in France across most of the political spectrum, and has been legal since 1975.

Many female legislators in the hall smiled broadly as they cheered. There also were jubilant scenes of celebrations all over France as women’s rights activists hailed the measure promised by Mr. Macron immediately following the Dobbs ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022.

Both houses of parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate, had already separately adopted a bill — as required — to amend Article 34 of the French Constitution. The measure specifies that “the law determines the conditions by which is exercised the freedom of women to have recourse to an abortion, which is guaranteed.”

The French measure is seen as going a step further in its guarantee of abortion rights than was the case in the former Yugoslavia, whose 1974 constitution said that “a person is free to decide on having children.” Yugoslavia dissolved in the early 1990s, and all its successor states have adopted similar measures in their constitutions that legally enable women to have an abortion, though they do not explicitly guarantee it.

In the lead-up to the historic vote, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal addressed the 925 lawmakers gathered for the joint session in Versailles and called on them to make France a leader in women’s rights and set an example for countries around the world.

“We have a moral debt to women,” Mr. Attal said. He paid tribute to Simone Veil, a prominent legislator, former Health Minister and key feminist who in 1975 championed the bill that decriminalized abortion in France.

“We have a chance to change history,” Mr. Attal said in a moving and determined speech. “Make Simone Veil proud,” he said to a standing ovation.

The Assembly overwhelmingly approved the proposal in January, and the Senate adopted it on February 28. A three-fifths majority in the joint session also was required for the measure to be written into the constitution.

None of France’s major political parties have questioned the right to abortion, including Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party and the conservative Republicans.

Ms. Le Pen, who won a record number of seats in the National Assembly two years ago, said on Monday that her party planned to vote in favour of the bill but added that “there is no need to make this a historic day.”

A recent poll showed support for abortion rights among the French public at more than 80%, consistent with previous surveys. The same poll also showed that a solid majority of people are in favor of enshrining it in the constitution.

There were scenes of celebrations around France even before the joint parliamentary session began.

Sarah Durocher, a leader in the Family Planning movement, said March 5th’s vote is “a victory for feminists and a defeat for the anti-choice activists.”

With the right to an abortion added to the constitution, it will be much harder to prevent women from voluntarily terminating a pregnancy in France, women’s rights and equality activists said.

“We increased the level of protection to this fundamental right,” said Anne-Cécile Mailfert of the Women’s Foundation. “It’s a guarantee for women today and in the future to have the right to abort in France.”

The government argued in its introduction to the bill that the right to abortion is threatened in the United States, where the Supreme Court in 2022 overturned a 50-year-old ruling that used to guarantee it.

“Unfortunately, this event is not isolated: In many countries, even in Europe, there are currents of opinion that seek to hinder at any cost the freedom of women to terminate their pregnancy if they wish,” the introduction to the French legislation says.

The decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to strip women of the right to abortion has reverberated across Europe’s political landscape, forcing the issue back into public debate in France at a time of political upheaval.

Mathilde Philip-Gay, a law professor and a specialist in French and American constitutional law, warned against easing the pressure on legislators for women’s rights as far-right parties — determined to curtail women’s rights — gain political influence and are elected to form governments around Europe and elsewhere.

“It may not be an issue in France, where a majority of people support abortion,” Ms. Philip-Gay said. “But those same people may one day vote for a far-right government, and what happened in the U.S. can happen elsewhere in Europe, including in France.”

Inscribing abortion into the French Constitution “will make it harder for abortion opponents of the future to challenge these rights, but it won’t prevent them from doing it in the long run, with the right political strategy,” Ms. Philip-Gay added.

“It only takes a moment for everything we thought that we have achieved to fade away,” said Yael Braun-Pivet, the first female President of the French parliament, in her address to the joint session.

Amending the constitution is a laborious process and a rare event in France. Since it was enacted in 1958, the French Constitution has been amended 17 times. The last time was in 2008, when parliament was awarded more powers and French citizens were granted the right to bring their grievances to the Constitutional Court.