PARIS, Dec 15: When veteran centrist Francois Bayrou, France's new prime minister, was education minister in the 1990s, his plan to increase subsidies for private schools led to nationwide protests. He quickly caved in and would stay in the post for four more years.
Three decades later, he will face a different force in the shape of a fractured and fractious parliament where one of his earliest tasks - as President Emmanuel Macron's fourth prime minister of the year - will be to pass a budget for 2025.
First, he must name a government which, like that of his predecessor Michel Barnier, will have minority support in parliament and be vulnerable to attack from far-right and left-wing opponents.
The ouster of Barnier and his cabinet - the first time France's parliament had voted to remove a government since 1962 - seemed to stun even those behind the move. For now, there is cross-party support for emergency legislation to ensure government funding does not dry up - but then the hard work on a budget for next year will begin.
"The difficulties remain the same as under Michel Barnier," Arnaud Benedetti, a professor at the Sorbonne university, told Reuters. "At least, a motion of no-confidence doesn't seem likely in the very short-term." —REUTERS
