France's new government marks decisive shift to the right

By Stefan J. Bos

After 2-1/2 months of political uncertainty since centrist President Emmanuel Macron's surprise decision to call early elections, Prime Minister Barnier has assembled a cabinet he hopes will find cross-party support in the fragmented parliament.

His team includes Bruno Retailleau, former President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party leader. Analysts say he negotiated the coveted interior ministry as a price for support in parliament.

Barnier, a former European Union negotiator for Britain’s exit from the EU, or “Brexit,” also authorized some junior ministers to oversee key policies directly, including on European affairs and the budget.

Given his experience in Brussels and public concern over France’s mounting budget deficit, Barnier had been due to play a more significant role in negotiations with the EU’s executive European Commission.

The talks are expected to focus on the so-called “excessive deficit procedure” Paris was put under last year for breaching EU rules on public spending.

Veteran political commentator Alain Duhamel said that taken together, it is “the most right-wing government since the Fillon administration under Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency” more than a decade ago.

Researchers have also linked the move to the right to concerns and hostility to immigration.

Migration policy

Barnier has already announced plans to toughen the country's migration policy. Analysts say he fears that if fundamental changes are not made to European migration policy, this will jeopardize the entire European Union project in the long term.

It could also attract voters who see his more moderate Republican party as an alternative to the more hardline immigration forces.

Those forces are also active in neighbouring Germany, where on Sunday, Germans in the state of Brandenburg were voting in a regional election.

The far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, was Expected to finish first, building on successes in other eastern states.

On September 1, the AfD became the first far-right party to win a state election in Germany since World War Two in Thuringia.