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00:00Now, the French Prime Minister, the new French Prime Minister,
00:02named, of course, only on Friday, is holding talks
00:05to try to avoid his new government falling early
00:08to a no-confidence vote, like, of course,
00:10the last government of Michel Barnier.
00:13François Bayrou has to get support from across the board.
00:16And he's met, in fact, just in the last hour
00:19with the far-right leader Marine Le Pen.
00:21And our French politics editor, Mark Perelman,
00:23is joining me here on set.
00:25Mark, Marine Le Pen's come out of that meeting
00:28and actually sounded pretty positive, didn't she?
00:30Yes, she was rather pleased, apparently,
00:34with that meeting, which lasted an hour or so.
00:37She said, we have been listened to, maybe not heard,
00:41but at least she said, OK, the Prime Minister
00:44seems to be really intent on dialogue.
00:48And she contrasted it with the outgoing Prime Minister
00:52Michel Barnier, who, she said, ended up talking to us
00:55only when he felt the threat of a motion of no confidence.
01:00And so she said, François Bayrou seems more open.
01:04She didn't go into details.
01:07But we know that there's a rather good personal
01:10relationship between them, not on the ideology
01:14and even on the budget.
01:16But, you know, for instance, and Marine Le Pen mentioned this
01:20in her remarks, that François Bayrou
01:23is a long term advocate of proportional voting,
01:26which is also something that she's wanted for years.
01:29So she said this is not the most urgent thing.
01:33The most urgent thing is putting together a budget and passing it.
01:37But clearly, she seemed to say, OK, we'll have to wait.
01:41Nice words are one thing.
01:43Big actions are another thing.
01:45But at least it's a good start
01:49for François Bayrou because Marine Le Pen is the one
01:51who pulled the trigger against Michel Barnier.
01:54He then met with Gabriel Attal,
01:58who was prime minister not that long ago
02:00and is the head of the Macron bloc at the parliament.
02:04No comment from Gabriel Attal coming out of those meetings.
02:07And there'll be other meetings with the socialists,
02:09with the conservatives.
02:10This is normal.
02:11François Bayrou was just appointed.
02:13He now needs to do two things.
02:16One is to put together a government.
02:18He said it would be a small commando style government.
02:22They all say this and it's not always the case in the end.
02:25And then he needs to make sure that he can navigate
02:30through this fractured parliament longer than Michel Barnier,
02:33only three months.
02:34The one party he won't be meeting, though,
02:36with is that very far left party, France Unbound.
02:40Yes, absolutely.
02:42François Bayrou said, you know, as of today,
02:44I'm inviting all the parties.
02:46And it's essentially the party that has the most seats
02:50that begins.
02:52So this is why the national rally was first.
02:54But we already see an interesting difference.
02:59When there was an unusual meeting last week
03:02at the presidential palace, the Elysée, Emmanuel Macron
03:07really made a point of not inviting the national rally.
03:11France Unbound also said they wouldn't come.
03:14But this morning, François Bayrou,
03:16starting by welcoming the national rally,
03:19is already sending the signal that he's not exactly
03:22seeing eye to eye with the president.
03:25He also had invited France Unbound,
03:27but they've said, François Bayrou, for us,
03:29he's a historic ally of Emmanuel Macron.
03:32He's going to implement the same policies.
03:34The talk might be different.
03:36But in the end, it's the same for us.
03:38So we will not go.
03:40What's important for François Bayrou
03:42is to meet with the other members of the leftist coalition,
03:46that is the Greens, the communists,
03:49and especially the socialists,
03:50because his objective is to basically blow up
03:55this new popular front and have the socialists,
03:59if not participate in the government,
04:01if not vote for him in the National Assembly,
04:04at least not vote against him.
04:06This is what they did with Michel Barnier.
04:08So he has to make sure they remain neutral.
04:12They've said, OK, we want no new immigration bill.
04:16We want a more generous budget when it comes
04:20to maybe less expenditure cuts
04:23and maybe more taxation on the wealthy.
04:26We'll have to see what François Bayrou might be able
04:29to give them in order to make sure they give him
04:33more breathing room at the National Assembly.
04:35Obviously, it's a tall order for him.
04:37Mark, thanks very much. Mark Perelman of French Politics,
04:40said to continue to follow the shenanigans,
04:42if you like.