France poised to finally get new govt, but why has it taken so long?

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00:00For more, we can speak to our French politics editor, Mark Perlman.

00:02Mark, I'm not going to ask you about the composition.

00:04We just saw in that report a lot of speculation.

00:06Could you at least explain to us why it's taking so long?

00:09Why it's taking so long?

00:10Because we're in uncharted territory,

00:13because this has been a very unusual snap election

00:16with a fractured National Assembly

00:20and an unlikely prime minister, Michel Barnier, hails from a group

00:24that has less than 10 percent of the seats

00:27of the National Assembly after this election.

00:31And so he has been trying for over two weeks now,

00:34it's a record, under the Fifth Republic, to form a government,

00:39not only with members of his conservative party,

00:43not only with Emmanuel Macron's party, but trying to enlarge it

00:46as much as possible, because as the president told him

00:49when he appointed him,

00:50he wanted to have a government representing really the nation.

00:55And that's been an issue.

00:56Why? Because the left, even people who were deemed central left,

01:01said, no, thank you, we won't get into this government.

01:04And so he has tried to lure them and say, OK, I'm going to wait.

01:09I'm going to maybe take some measures that you will like on the environment,

01:13on taxes and so on.

01:15But it hasn't worked.

01:16And so now he decided yesterday that enough was enough

01:20and that he would bring together essentially the right

01:24and Macron's center party and its allies

01:28and try to cobble together government.

01:30But even that is proving to be complicated

01:34because the first draft that Michel Barnier gave

01:38was too heavy with his members of his party.

01:41And the president, Emmanuel Macron, said that's not going to work.

01:44You know, my party obviously didn't win the election,

01:48but we have twice as many MPs than you have with the Conservative Party.

01:52And so this is why there was a lot of back and forth,

01:55even maybe some also some false drama when there were reports

02:00that Michel Barnier had had enough, that he wanted to hand in his resignation

02:05two days ago.

02:06Now they've reached a compromise.

02:08Yesterday night, there was a meeting between Emmanuel Macron,

02:11Michel Barnier at the presidential palace, the Elysée.

02:14Michel Barnier presented him the list of 38 ministers.

02:19And we just saw a report about the main ones on this.

02:22Now we're hearing that there are still some adjustments being made.

02:27A government reshuffle lasts until the very last second.

02:32Some ministers have said they were chosen or called really

02:36within the last hour before previous governments were announced.

02:40So there's still lots of back and forth.

02:42And there's also a process whereby all the potential ministers

02:47are being vetted by the High

02:52Institute for the Transparency of Public Life.

02:56It was created a few years ago to make sure that you paid your taxes,

03:00that you don't have legal troubles, to make sure that after appointing

03:03a minister, the prime minister finds himself with a controversy and so on.

03:08So this takes at least one or two days,

03:11which is why, to probably answer your question,

03:15the government will very likely be announced either tomorrow,

03:19Saturday or Sunday, but probably not today, Friday.

03:22At some point, we're going to see this list.

03:24At some point, presumably, we will have this cabinet.

03:27But we can be sure that the political headache is far from over here in France.

03:32Yes, because when the leaked list of ministers came out,

03:37which is rather unusual already,

03:39because normally it's a tightly held secret,

03:43the left has said, wait a minute,

03:46we were ahead in the snap elections

03:51and this is a right wing government.

03:54And they're adding to that a right wing government

03:58clearly under the threat or under the watch, if you want, of the national rally.

04:04Why? Because the national rally has to accept the government in parliament

04:09because if the national rally decides to join hands with the left

04:12and vote a motion of the confidence, this government falls immediately

04:17because the mathematics are very easy.

04:19But that would be strange bedfellows.

04:21Yes, that would be strange bedfellows.

04:23But yes, obviously.

04:24But the left is saying this is a government that's already pretty much

04:29a center right, if not a right wing government when you watch the ministers.

04:33And in addition, it has an implicit alliance with the national rally.

04:38So this is why you're already hearing lots of protests from the left.

04:43And this shows that it's going to be very, very difficult

04:46for this new government, first of all, to stay alive.

04:50And then the first hurdle, and it's a big hurdle, is the budget.

04:54The budget was supposed to be voted on October 1st.

04:57Well, this is the day Michel Barnier will give his policy speech before parliament.

05:01So we're already running late on this crucial budget.

05:04Mark, thank you very much, Mark.

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