French PM names new government, hoping to avoid another no-confidence vote

Centrist François Bayrou had promised a ‘national interest government’ across the middle political ground but ended up leaning to the conservative right

The French prime minister has announced his new government – the country’s fourth since the beginning of the year – in the hope his administration can see off another vote of no confidence from a bitterly divided parliament.

There is a mix of old and new in François Bayrou’s government, which includes several familiar faces: the former interior minister Gérald Darmanin has been appointed justice minister; the former prime minister Elisabeth Borne, a technocrat, returns to government as education secretary, while another former prime minister, Manuel Valls – who served under the socialist president François Hollande, has been appointed overseas minister.

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