France finally has a new government, but how long will it last?

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00:00Well, Philip Taylor's joining me now from our International Affairs desk. Philip, why is this government then being contested?

00:05I mean, it's only just as we heard that from Clovis, trying to get down to work.

00:08To be honest with you, Stuart, a lot of people in France and overseas are still scratching their heads saying what is going on in France?

00:15Why did they call early elections? There was no point in doing that. Emmanuel Macron has put the cat amongst the pigeons.

00:21He's lost his majority, or his relative majority. He's even less now.

00:24And he's created a government that is the most

00:28extreme right-wing government in the history of the Fifth Republic since 1958, which is exactly the opposite of what the left is saying,

00:36which is, well, basically, we came top in that election in July. We won the most seats.

00:40There's not at all a left-wing stance in the current government at all.

00:46So one person who is a former socialist who's going to be justice minister, who's called Didier Migo.

00:52So already, the right-wing National Rally of Marine Le Pen, the far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen, and the far-left

00:58France Unbowed, and this left-wing coalition of the France Unbowed, Socialists, Communists and Greens, are already

01:06thinking that they're going to try to

01:09unseat this government with a motion of no confidence.

01:11Even the Socialists are saying they're going to table that on the 1st of October, when Michel Barnier is going to make his

01:17declaration of policies of what he's intending to do as prime minister.

01:21So it looks like he's in for a rocky ride. And on top of that, if that wasn't enough,

01:26there are these two candidates in the government we've just been hearing about.

01:29Bruno Retailleau, the Interior Minister, who was against same-sex marriage. He was also against the banning of

01:38conversion therapy for homosexuals.

01:40And both he and another minister, Lens Garnier, have said they were against the idea of

01:48giving the right for abortion, making it inscribed in the Constitution. So a lot of

01:55left-wingers in France have said, well, this is totally out of order. And even the former Prime Minister,

02:00Gabriel Attal, has made a statement saying he's going to demand that the new Prime Minister

02:07make sure that there's not going to be regression on rights for people in France.

02:12Notably, when it comes to abortion, medically-assisted reproductional,

02:16LGBTQ rights that have already been well-established for years. So there is a lot going on which is

02:25making this new government look incredibly unsure and uncertain, just to say how long it can actually last.

02:33An awful lot going on, an awful lot of time pressure as well, Philip. I mean, the budgetary

02:37announcement, which is seen as France's most crucial issue, that's due by the end of this month.

02:42Yeah, well, three trillion euros worth of debt, which the government's going to have to try to

02:49find a solution for, that's double what the EU has said that they're going to allow France to

02:54have the three percent limit. The coffers are basically empty and the government's going to

03:01have to try and find this money from somewhere. There are two new people in charge of that. One

03:05of them is the guy on the left there. He's called Antoine Armand. He's only 33 years old. He's a new

03:11finance minister. On the right is Laurent Saint-Martin. He's in charge of the budget. They're having to

03:16find out how they're going to try to soak up that big hole in French finances without raising taxes,

03:23which is what Emmanuel Macron says he will definitely refuse to do. So it's a tall order.

03:29They're saying they're going to try to make big business contribute more. Those with vast fortunes

03:34will also be able to contribute more. Sixty-seven percent of French people say they want a

03:39re-imposition of the wealth tax in France, which will help also boost the French coffers. But it's

03:43no mean feat. It's estimated about 20 billion euros is needed every year for the next five

03:49years to make things a little bit better for the government and get them back on track with the

03:53European Union. But that's not all the government's got to put up with, because they also have the

03:57overhaul of the pension reform. That's something that's been called for by the left and also by

04:02the far right. They also have the law on immigration. That is up for discussion once again.

04:07Dealing with the violence in Martinique, where prices are 40 percent higher than they are in

04:11mainland France. All of these are urgent problems that the government is going to have to deal with

04:16when it finally takes office later today. First cabinet meeting is this afternoon at about

04:22three o'clock. And just very quickly, if that wasn't enough, there's also foreign policy, which

04:27France has got to deal with. A brand new young foreign minister who's only 41, Jean-Noël Barrault,

04:32never been minister before. He's got the war in Ukraine. He's got also the war in Gaza and

04:37Lebanon and the possible arrival of Donald Trump in the White House, plus France's position in

04:42Europe. All of those under discussion. A big order, lots of problems to sort out and a very

04:49young and quite inexperienced cabinet to do that.

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