French cabinet meets to discuss tackling budget and migrant issues

France’s new government dominated by conservatives and centrists has gathered for the first time as Prime Minister Michel Barnier puts the country’s budget and migrant issues at the top of the agenda.

Barnier convened a meeting on Monday morning with newly appointed ministers ahead of a cabinet session in the afternoon at the Élysée presidential palace in the country’s capital.

The long-awaited list of government members was unveiled on Saturday — more than two months after elections that produced a hung parliament and deepened political divisions.

Speaking on Sunday evening in his first televised interview since the ministers’ appointment, Barnier acknowledged a key challenge for his government will be the 2025 budget bill to be debated at parliament starting next month.

A “national effort required to redress the situation” is required after the European Commission placed France under a formal procedure earlier this year for running up excessive debt, Barnier said in the broadcast.

He also hinted at his intentions to raise taxes for France’s wealthiest constituents.

“I’m not going to further increase the tax burden on all French people,” Barnier promised, yet suggesting that “the wealthiest contribute to this national effort”.

In June, the European Commission recommended that seven nations, including France, start a so-called “excessive deficit procedure”. This is the first step in a long process before any member state can be hemmed in and moved to take corrective action.

Barnier also vowed to “control and limit immigration” in Sunday’s interview. He said the number of migrants coming to France “has become unbearable”.

He referred to measures taken by neighbouring countries like Germany, which this month ordered temporary controls at all land borders.

Barnier was appointed at the beginning of the month but his first major political test will come on 1 October, when he is set to deliver his general policy speech to the National Assembly, France’s powerful lower house of parliament.

A left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front, secured the most seats in the June-July parliamentary elections but failed to win a majority, splitting the National Assembly into three fairly evenly sized blocs: the left-wing coalition, Macron’s centrists and the far-right.

The New Popular Front was not given a chance to form a minority government and refused to make concessions and join a more left-leaning government alliance.

Barnier argued that the deal made by his conservative allies and Macron’s centrists would allow them to have a bigger support at the National Assembly.

Barnier, a 73-year-old political veteran known for his role as the EU’s Brexit negotiator, is no stranger to complex political tasks.

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“We’ll make compromises,” he said. “That’s how I managed to unite the EU 27 countries during the Brexit negotiations.”

Barnier also insisted there will be “no controversy” between him and Macron despite both coming from a different political background, because “that’s the interest of the country”.