New French PM Bayrou met far-right leader Marine Le Pen

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00:00Now, the French Prime Minister, the new French Prime Minister,

00:02named, of course, only on Friday, is holding talks

00:05to try to avoid his new government falling early

00:08to a no-confidence vote, like, of course,

00:10the last government of Michel Barnier.

00:13François Bayrou has to get support from across the board.

00:16And he's met, in fact, just in the last hour

00:19with the far-right leader Marine Le Pen.

00:21And our French politics editor, Mark Perelman,

00:23is joining me here on set.

00:25Mark, Marine Le Pen's come out of that meeting

00:28and actually sounded pretty positive, didn't she?

00:30Yes, she was rather pleased, apparently,

00:34with that meeting, which lasted an hour or so.

00:37She said, we have been listened to, maybe not heard,

00:41but at least she said, OK, the Prime Minister

00:44seems to be really intent on dialogue.

00:48And she contrasted it with the outgoing Prime Minister

00:52Michel Barnier, who, she said, ended up talking to us

00:55only when he felt the threat of a motion of no confidence.

01:00And so she said, François Bayrou seems more open.

01:04She didn't go into details.

01:07But we know that there's a rather good personal

01:10relationship between them, not on the ideology

01:14and even on the budget.

01:16But, you know, for instance, and Marine Le Pen mentioned this

01:20in her remarks, that François Bayrou

01:23is a long term advocate of proportional voting,

01:26which is also something that she's wanted for years.

01:29So she said this is not the most urgent thing.

01:33The most urgent thing is putting together a budget and passing it.

01:37But clearly, she seemed to say, OK, we'll have to wait.

01:41Nice words are one thing.

01:43Big actions are another thing.

01:45But at least it's a good start

01:49for François Bayrou because Marine Le Pen is the one

01:51who pulled the trigger against Michel Barnier.

01:54He then met with Gabriel Attal,

01:58who was prime minister not that long ago

02:00and is the head of the Macron bloc at the parliament.

02:04No comment from Gabriel Attal coming out of those meetings.

02:07And there'll be other meetings with the socialists,

02:09with the conservatives.

02:10This is normal.

02:11François Bayrou was just appointed.

02:13He now needs to do two things.

02:16One is to put together a government.

02:18He said it would be a small commando style government.

02:22They all say this and it's not always the case in the end.

02:25And then he needs to make sure that he can navigate

02:30through this fractured parliament longer than Michel Barnier,

02:33only three months.

02:34The one party he won't be meeting, though,

02:36with is that very far left party, France Unbound.

02:40Yes, absolutely.

02:42François Bayrou said, you know, as of today,

02:44I'm inviting all the parties.

02:46And it's essentially the party that has the most seats

02:50that begins.

02:52So this is why the national rally was first.

02:54But we already see an interesting difference.

02:59When there was an unusual meeting last week

03:02at the presidential palace, the Elysée, Emmanuel Macron

03:07really made a point of not inviting the national rally.

03:11France Unbound also said they wouldn't come.

03:14But this morning, François Bayrou,

03:16starting by welcoming the national rally,

03:19is already sending the signal that he's not exactly

03:22seeing eye to eye with the president.

03:25He also had invited France Unbound,

03:27but they've said, François Bayrou, for us,

03:29he's a historic ally of Emmanuel Macron.

03:32He's going to implement the same policies.

03:34The talk might be different.

03:36But in the end, it's the same for us.

03:38So we will not go.

03:40What's important for François Bayrou

03:42is to meet with the other members of the leftist coalition,

03:46that is the Greens, the communists,

03:49and especially the socialists,

03:50because his objective is to basically blow up

03:55this new popular front and have the socialists,

03:59if not participate in the government,

04:01if not vote for him in the National Assembly,

04:04at least not vote against him.

04:06This is what they did with Michel Barnier.

04:08So he has to make sure they remain neutral.

04:12They've said, OK, we want no new immigration bill.

04:16We want a more generous budget when it comes

04:20to maybe less expenditure cuts

04:23and maybe more taxation on the wealthy.

04:26We'll have to see what François Bayrou might be able

04:29to give them in order to make sure they give him

04:33more breathing room at the National Assembly.

04:35Obviously, it's a tall order for him.

04:37Mark, thanks very much. Mark Perelman of French Politics,

04:40said to continue to follow the shenanigans,

04:42if you like.

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