Gov't Reshuffle Sees Loyalists Rewarded, Tilt To Right

Following the appointment of Education Minister Gabriel Attal as PM earlier in the week, President Emmanuel Macron has engaged in something of a cabinet reshuffle. With an eye on the 9 June European Parliament elections some veteran Cabinet members have been retained to lend an air of stability, some party loyalists have been rewarded with promotions, and the overall tilt of the gov't appears to have shifted to the right.

• The most notable change has been at the Foreign Ministry, with Stephane Sejourne - the secretary general of Macron's centrist Renaissance party and (now former) lead candidate for the liberal Renew Europe group - replacing Catherine Colonna. With the appointment of Attal (34) and Sejourne (38), Macron looks to be putting forward an image of renewal for his party ahead of the polls.
• Two long-standing senior Cabinet members retain their positions. Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire retains the position he has held since 2017 in a signal of continuity to markets. Gerald Darmanin, Interior Minister since 2020 and formerly of the conservative Les Republicains (LR), also remains in office in an effort to project a hard-line stance on security and immigration.
• Rachida Dati, former Minister of Justice under conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy, has been appointed Culture Minister and subsequently suspended from LR by party head Eric Ciotti.
• France24: "[Macron's] new cabinet is prominently sprinkled with right-wing names.According to French news channel BFM TV, out of the 14 ministers named, 8 were from the right."