New French PM nears deal on cabinet

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PARIS (Reuters) -French Prime Minister Michel Barnier has pulled together a list of ministers he plans to appoint to his cabinet and will submit it later on Thursday to President Emmanuel Macron, Barnier’s office said, two weeks after Macron named him to the post.

Barnier, the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator, has struggled to name a new government, underlining the complicated topography of France’s political landscape after Macron’s ill-fated decision to call a snap legislative election this summer.

The early July vote delivered an unruly hung parliament that has left political unity hard to come by.

It is now up to Macron to approve Barnier’s cabinet.

Citing comments by former prime minister Gabriel Attal to his party after meeting with Barnier, BFM TV said the government would comprise 16 ministers and 22 junior ministers, from centrist and conservative parties.

Neither Attal nor Barnier made any comment on that.

Settling on a list of names to lead France’s key offices of state has been challenging, particularly as the next government will likely have to administer a politically toxic round of spending cuts or tax hikes to improve the country’s fiscal mess.

(Reporting by Zhifan Liu, Tassilo Hummel; Writing by Ingrid Melander and Gabriel Stargardter; Editing by Conor Humphries)