The government still faces two challenges in the coming weeks: the risk of a no-confidence vote and a tight budget deadline.
President Emmanuel Macron of France on Saturday appointed a new cabinet that marked a strong shift to the right, in a nation so divided that it took over two months to form a government whose prospects of long-term stability are far from clear.
The announcement from the French presidency came two weeks after Mr. Macron appointed Michel Barnier, a veteran center-right politician, as prime minister, in hopes of moving past the political impasse that has paralyzed France since its inconclusive parliamentary elections this summer.
The new cabinet includes centrists from Mr. Macron’s party and its allies, but also right-wing politicians from Mr. Barnier’s Republican party, some of them in crucial positions — representing a resurgence for France’s mainstream conservatives, who have been marginalized for much of Mr. Macron’s presidency.
“A team!” Mr. Barnier said on X after the announcement. “And now, to work!”
Mr. Barnier’s protracted negotiations to find a viable coalition in a fractured Parliament provoked tensions with Mr. Macron, who had said the prime minister was free to proceed as he saw fit in choosing ministers, and revealed the extent of the political divisions that will make the new government vulnerable at any moment.
The delay, the longest such deliberation in the history of the Fifth Republic, following the longest ever time taken by a president to name a prime minister, left a French economic crisis to fester further, with the country’s debt and budget deficit ballooning amid growing international concern. Agreeing on a budget will be the government’s first priority.
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