Actions speak louder than words, new French PM tells cabinet

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By Elizabeth Pineau and Michel Rose

PARIS (Reuters) -France’s new Prime Minister Michel Barnier, gathering his cabinet for the first time on Monday, told ministers to focus on action rather than stunts as he sought to change voters’ perceptions that previous governments had been too arrogant.

The cabinet, appointed two and a half months after an inconclusive snap election, will not have an easy task in getting reforms or the 2025 budget approved by a very divided parliament.

“Focus on action rather than talk,” his office quoted Barnier as telling the ministers ahead of a cabinet meeting. “No theatrics.”

Barnier said they must show respect for all their compatriots and political parties, listen to everyone and be humble.

Opinion polls and elections have for years shown that voters are unhappy with Macron’s top-down style – and Macron himself on Monday urged ministers to be humble and listen to voters who did not vote for them.

While an alliance of left-wing parties came first in the July election and the far-right National Rally (RN) was the single party with the most votes, no grouping had an absolute majority.

Macron’s centrists eventually struck a deal with conservatives to form a minority government, even though both groups suffered substantial losses in the election.

How stable the new government will be, and whether it will manage to get reforms passed by parliament, remains to be seen.

The RN is in a kingmaker position after it gave tacit support to Barnier’s premiership but reserved the right to withdraw it if its concerns over immigration, security and other issues were not met.

“We will be the ones deciding whether this government has a future or not,” RN lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy told France Inter radio. He said the party would wait to see what Barnier will announce in a speech to parliament scheduled for Oct. 1.

SECURITY

Barnier’s ministers, including those in charge of finance and budget portfolios, are mostly little known to the French public and many have little political clout.

One exception is new Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, 63, a veteran from The Republicans (LR) conservative party, and a driving force behind the party’s rightward shift.

“The French people want more order – order in the streets, order at the borders,” Retailleau said as he took office.

He said he would be hard on those who attack or disrespect police, and would also take a tough stance on antisemitism. He told Le Figaro he would not hesitate to close Islamist mosques or expel radical imams – something previous governments have also done.

Retailleau has long advocated getting tougher on immigration but on Monday did not spell out what his policies on that front would be.

Even as 10 conservative politicians joined the cabinet, Macron kept a number of outgoing ministers in key posts. Only one left-wing politician made Barnier’s team, Didier Migaud as justice minister.

(Writing by Ingrid Melander; Reporting by Makini Brice, Michel Rose, Elizabeth Pineau, Tassilo Hummel, Blandine Henault and Michal Aleksandrowicz; Editing by Alex Richardson, Angus MacSwan and Tomasz Janowski)