President Macron has named François Bayrou as France’s next prime minister.
The 73-year old centrist is an ally of Macron’s. He is from the Democratic Movement — or MoDem party, and the president of the European Democratic Party.
Bayrou in France has been called “the third man” since he ran for the 2007 presidential elections, when he vouched for himself as “the third way” between right and left. He also ran in 2012, and thereafter supported Macron.
He is the high commissioner of planning, the French government body responsible for leading and coordinating projects linked to social, environmental and technological issues.
In 2012, Bayrou became minister of justice, but he resigned when he and the MoDem party were prosecuted on fraud charges of misusing European Parliament funds (a claim he denied in court).
Now he claims he will “hide nothing, neglect nothing and leave nothing aside”.
A French PM seems to have quite a lot of power – naming a new government and a new budget. Bayrou said that reducing France’s deficit and debt was a “moral obligation”.
He is also the mayor of Pau, where he is from. Before his political career he was a teacher of reek and Latin. He has six children and is a practicing catholic.
