French President Emmanuel Macron has reshuffled his government after suffering a major setback for his administration. In the June 19 election Macron lost his majority and the results from the ballot box mean that Macron will now have to rely on the votes from opposition parties to pass legislation.
Macron has now reshuffled his government of 31 ministers. (Photo: AFP)
The general election results, after two rounds of voting on June 12 and June 19, resulted in a hung parliament, with Macron's Renaissance as the largest party. On Monday, he decided not to appoint a coalition government, giving the clearest signal yet that he and his ministers will hope to convince opposition MPs to vote for proposed legislation on a policy-by-policy basis.
There are 31 ministers in the new government, the fourth that he has appointed since coming to office in his first presidential term in May 2017.
He has continued to show faith in the prime minister, Elisabeth Borne, who had offered her resignation to Macron after the general election. The 61-year-old premier is due to address the national assembly - France's lower house of Parliament - on July 6, in what will be her first official address to MPs since the election.
She is still facing the prospect of a no-confidence vote after the leading opposition figure Jean-Luc Melenchon pledged to call for one when she made her first appearance in Parliament. There was no change in the three major ministries, with Interior Secretary Gerald Darmanin, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, and Foreign Secretary Catherine Colonna all continuing in their posts.
However, Damien Abad, who denies allegations of attempted rape and who is the subject of an investigation into the matter, has been replaced as the disabilities minister. Emmanuel Macron also had to find new names in the three departments where the serving minister lost their seat in the election, including the environment ministry and the department in charge of maritime affairs.
The health secretary also lost her seat, meaning France has had three different ministers of health since May 20 this year.
One of the more recognizable names in the new cabinet is Laurence Boone, the former chief economist at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, who comes into the government as the new Europe minister.
