Actions speak louder than words, new French PM tells cabinet

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00:00Well, let's speak to Emerald Maxwell now. She's our reporter outside the Elysee

00:04presidential palace where that cabinet meeting was held a bit earlier on today.

00:07Emerald, I understand the meeting has now wrapped up. Do we know how it went?

00:14Yeah, well that very first cabinet meeting of the brand-new government

00:18wrapped up about an hour ago. It only lasted about 25 minutes. It was really

00:22just a meeting and greeting of the new ministers who, they were only finalized

00:27over the weekend of course. And as new Prime Minister Michel Barnier said

00:32earlier, now's the time for action not words. So they need to get on with the

00:36work. President Emmanuel Macron was of course at that meeting earlier at the

00:40presidential palace behind me. He also spoke to his new government and he

00:45called for solidarity and said it was time now to pull together. It was time

00:50for ambition and courage and also for dialogue obviously amongst each other

00:54but also with the French people and who he reminded them hadn't all voted for

01:00this government because of course it is made up mostly of center and right-wing

01:04politicians who didn't win the popular vote. They didn't come first in those

01:09snap elections a couple of months ago. That was the new popular front, the

01:12left-wing alliance, but they do not figure in this new government at all.

01:16There's only one left-wing figure in this government who is the new Justice

01:20Minister. His name is Didier Migaud. He's an independent left-wing figure.

01:25Aside from that it's the very right-wing. It's been a shift to the right for

01:30this government compared to the last one. And some of the new faces we have

01:34Bruno Retailleau who we heard earlier, he's the new Interior Minister. His

01:39priority he said was order. He's actually quite a controversial choice. He's known

01:45for his hard right views and it's very controversial for those on the left. We

01:49also have a brand new economy minister who's had a meteoric rise in the

01:54economy ministry. His name is Antoine Armour. He's just 33 and he's inheriting

01:58a very tough job which is of course France's finances. That is one of the

02:03most pressing issues on the table now. France has a deficit of nearly reaching

02:085.6% of GDP this year and that is one of the priorities for this French

02:13government.

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