François Bayrou, Political Veteran, Appointed as New French Prime Minister at 73

paris - French President Macron appoints the political veteran François Bayrou as the new Prime Minister of France to lead the country out of a political crisis and impasse.

François Bayrou, a political veteran, has been appointed as the new Prime Minister of France by President Emmanuel Macron, following the fall of the Barnier cabinet over a week ago. The 73-year-old politician has been tasked with navigating the country out of the political impasse amid a crisis between the president and the parliament.

Bayrou becomes the fourth prime minister within a year. After the resignation of Élisabeth Borne on January 8, 2024, Gabriel Attal served as prime minister for nearly eight months, from January 9 to September 5. He was then succeeded by Michel Barnier, who has now passed the torch to Bayrou after less than four months. Never before in the history of the Fifth Republic, established in 1958, have there been so many changes in French government leadership within such a short time.

Bayrou, who grew up in a farming family in the Pyrenees, studied classical literature in Bordeaux. He started his career in education, while also helping to maintain the family farm following his father's sudden death in 1974. In 1982, Bayrou entered politics and became a councilor for the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department.

He gained national recognition when he was appointed Minister of Education in 1993, a position he held for over four years. Bayrou ran for the French presidential elections three times (in 2002, 2007, and 2012) but never made it to the second round. After the 2007 elections, he founded the political party MoDem (Democratic Movement), of which he remains the party president. Since 2014, he has also been the mayor of Pau, a city in southwestern France, at the foot of the Pyrenees. In his personal life, Bayrou married Élisabeth Perlant in 1971, with whom he has six children.