CGTN Europe interviewed Anne-Élisabeth Moutet, a French journalist and commentator.
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00:00Nous allons vous emmener à la France maintenant, après des semaines de rassemblement politique.
00:04Paris a révélé un nouveau gouvernement.
00:06Le nouveau premier ministre Michel Barnier a mis en place un cabinet,
00:09en espérant attaquer un équilibre entre les droites et les centristes,
00:13pour essayer de trouver un soutien cross-parti dans un parlement plutôt fragmenté.
00:17En juin, le président centriste Emmanuel Macron a appelé une élection surprise,
00:22après son parti a suffi une grande défaite dans les élections de l'UE.
00:27Anne-Elisabeth Moutet est une journaliste et commentatrice française.
00:57It was difficult to put together a cabinet because the drama did not stop
01:02when a prime minister was found and that what we ended up with
01:07is a combination of essentially central right characters
01:12and centrists from the Macron movement.
01:15You cannot even argue that if you add les républicains to the Macron partisans,
01:21you have a majority.
01:22So how long that lasts really now is hands on the hands of Marine Le Pen,
01:27who's been quietly sort of watching this saying nothing,
01:31because she figures that it's going to blow up sometime
01:35and then she will profit in one way or another.
01:37Now people outside France might be scratching their heads here
01:41because this long-awaited new line-up, led by, as you say,
01:45Prime Minister Michel Barnier, really does, doesn't it,
01:49mark a decisive move to the right,
01:52even though it was a left-wing alliance that won most of the parliamentary seats?
01:59It was a left-wing alliance, although it was an ad hoc left-wing alliance
02:06and Michel Barnier has tried to get members of every single party there
02:12except the former Trotskyite Jean-Luc Mélenchon,
02:15who only got 79 seats, which is 13% of the entire House,
02:20but who have been dictating everything because they are much more competent
02:23at this kind of sort of parliamentary maneuvering.
02:28But they've asked many socialists to take part and they have one,
02:33who is Didier Migaud, who is the Minister for Justice.
02:36It's a regalian post, as we say in France,
02:39as one of the main functions of state, justice, but they wanted more.
02:44At least, you know, this is what they're saying.
02:46It is also true that they've got some people from Les Républicains,
02:51but they have not the most contentious people from Les Républicains.
02:54They haven't really got the Sarkozy's former ministers.
02:57So they say this is, you know, they don't sort of go out and make statements about it,
03:02but what they're saying is, look, this is the most balanced government we could reach,
03:06considering the people who agreed to take part.
03:10The people they did not ask were the National Rally,
03:12even though the National Rally called the most votes, even in the second round.
03:1611% of the vote, they got 34% of the vote,
03:20so I think they did about as well as Kirsten.
03:23And they came last in the snap election.
03:28OK, well, some new faces then at the top,
03:31but some things remain the same, don't they?
03:34I'm thinking in particular about France's dire deficit.
03:38Presumably that's top of the in-tray.
03:42That is, and the question is what do they do about it?
03:45It's very interesting that they've appointed possibly the most interesting newcomer in French politics in some time,
03:51who's Antoine Armand.
03:52He is the 33-year-old finance minister.
03:55He is a technocrat, if you will.
03:58He is extremely bright.
04:00He identifies as Republican, Les Républicains,
04:05but he is quite willing to take strong measures, including some taxes.
04:13We don't know exactly what those taxes are going to be like,
04:16but essentially he has said, look, you cannot keep on telling people that you can solve problems
04:22without doing something that is not going to be popular.
04:26And his reputation is excellent.
04:28He is a completely new face,
04:30and quite honestly he's never been identified in political action.
04:34So he may have enemies within the Ministry of Finance,
04:37but he doesn't have that many in the political world yet.