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00:00We can speak to Professor Renaud Foucault joining us on the line from Lancaster, England.
00:05Hello to you and thank you for speaking to Paris Direct.
00:07The composition of this new French government, I believe we see 10 ministers from the Republican
00:13Party who came in fourth place in June's elections, about 12 from Macron affiliated
00:18parties, no one from either the two biggest voting blocs in Parliament.
00:22Prime Minister Michel Barnier going on national television this evening.
00:25How is he going to sell this to the French people?
00:28He's going to sell this as I am a man of responsibility.
00:32I've been asked to take responsibility and bring France back on track.
00:37So I don't think he will enter into any political discussion about the left or the far right
00:42because in the end, it's very uncomfortable.
00:44On the left, he knows that somehow most of the parliamentarians who will support him
00:49from the centre hold their seat to an alliance between the left and the centre, the Republican
00:53Front.
00:54And on the other side, I don't think he wants to speak too much about the fact that his
00:57government needs the support of the far right to exist.
01:00So his only way, I think, to defend himself would be to talk about his own personality,
01:06to say that he's here to find solutions.
01:08And perhaps it might work because it seems that at the moment, Barnier remains a pretty
01:13popular figure in France after being totally unknown.
01:16Perhaps two weeks ago, nobody in France had heard of him.
01:19But is this a democracy in action or is this a travesty of democracy?
01:24I mean, it's a very difficult situation here.
01:27But is this working democratic politics or not?
01:34On October 1st, Barnier will make his first speech and there will be a possibility to
01:40censor him.
01:40If there is no majority censoring him, it means that de facto he has a majority.
01:45So in that sense, stricto sensu, this is democratic.
01:49Now, obviously, I think everyone who attended the French election, who followed that, noticed
01:54that the second round was a referendum against the far right, that the far right lost and
02:00that the government that will be in power will be a government that is held hostage
02:04by the far right.
02:05So the far right will have a chance to pull the plug at any time.
02:08So in that sense, it may.
02:10And I think there is a good case to say it's undemocratic, but the blame game, I don't
02:14know exactly who's to blame, because somehow the left will say we wanted to have Lucie
02:18Castel at prime minister.
02:20We were the first bloc.
02:21It's Macron's fault.
02:22He didn't nominate us.
02:23And Macron will say, no, the problem is that there was a need for a coalition, the need
02:28for a consensus between the center and the left.
02:30And the problem is that you didn't want to to make that consensus.
02:32So we don't know why this is kind of a last resort government.
02:36It is democratic in in fact, perhaps not completely in spirit.
02:40It's not the result of the election, clearly.
02:43And if a measure is brought forward to censor him or a no confidence vote, will this cabinet
02:47survive?
02:49So if there is a no confidence vote, the question is, what does the far right do?
02:53At the moment, Marine Le Pen has said we will not censor.
02:56So I think if Macron has chosen Barnier, there must be some kind of deal.
03:01There must be some kind of discussion with Marine Le Pen that says that at least at the
03:06beginning, she will support it because it's a big bet for Macron choosing someone out
03:11of his heart, which was not a big name advanced by either party.
03:14If if Barnier is censored immediately, it would be totally humiliating for Macron.
03:18So I would expect that the far right is supporting Barnier.
03:22This is also something you see in the choice of Barnier himself with a very conservative
03:26figure of some of his ministers who have you've talked about that background of being anti
03:31abortion, anti gay rights and things like that.
03:34So this is a very conservative cabinet that is meant to be somehow wooing the far right
03:39if they don't support it this time.
03:41Abstaining means support in a vote of no confidence.
03:43If they don't support it this time, Barnier will be censored.
03:46But I don't think it will happen, at least at the beginning.
03:49Running out of time, but real quickly of the 39 posts, which one caught your eye the most?
03:54I think perhaps the absence of any heavyweight.
03:56So the fact that I didn't know most of them.
03:58I think this is a government.
03:59Clearly, people are scared of going there and none of the big names of the far right
04:04or the center is there.
04:06So I think the one that's the most surprising to me is the absence of Laurent Wauquiez.
04:09So not the biggest guy from the right prefer to stay outside and hide.
04:14All right, thank you very much, Renaud Foucault speaking to us from Lancaster.