Michel Jean Barnier is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from September to December 2024. A member of a series of Gaullist parties, Barnier has served in several French cabinet positions under the governments from Édouard Balladur to François Fillon from 1993 to 2009. At the European Union (EU) level, Barnier was European Commissioner for Internal Market and Services from 2010 to 2014 and vice-president of the European People's Party (EPP) from 2010 to 2015. From October 2016 to 2021, he was the EU's chief negotiator on Britain's exit from the European Union.
The Democratic Movement is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was established by François Bayrou to succeed the Union for French Democracy (UDF) and contest the 2007 legislative election, after his strong showing in the 2007 presidential election. Initially named the Democratic Party, the party was renamed "Democratic Movement", because there was already a small Democratic Party in France.
Catherine Vautrin is a French politician who has been serving as Minister of Labour, Health, Solidarity, and Families in the Bayrou government since 2024.
Éric Ciotti is a French politician who led The Republicans (LR) from 2022 to 2024. He has represented Alpes-Maritimes's 1st constituency in the National Assembly since the 2007 legislative election. Once a member of The Republicans' right-wing, he was seeking to distance the party from Emmanuel Macron's presidency. He left The Republicans in 2024, and is now the leader of the Union of the Right for the Republic (UDR) party and parliamentary group.
Philippe Poutou is a French far-left politician, former trade unionist and car factory worker. He was the New Anticapitalist Party's candidate in the presidential elections of 2012, 2017 and 2022, in which he respectively received 1.15%, 1.09% and 0.76% of the vote.
Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. He previously was Minister of Economics, Industry and Digital Affairs under President François Hollande from 2014 to 2016 and deputy secretary-general to the president from 2012 to 2014. He has been a member of Renaissance since he founded it in 2016.
The Republicans is a liberal-conservative political party in France, largely inspired by the tradition of Gaullism. The party was formed in 2015 as the refoundation of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), which had been established in 2002 under the leadership of the then-president of France, Jacques Chirac.
Presidential elections were held in France on 10 and 24 April 2022. As no candidate won a majority in the first round, a runoff was held, in which Emmanuel Macron defeated Marine Le Pen and was re-elected as President of France. Macron, from La République En Marche! (LREM), had defeated Le Pen, leader of the National Rally, once already in the 2017 French presidential election, for the term which expired on 13 May 2022. Macron became the first president of France to win a re-election bid since Jacques Chirac won in 2002.
Élisabeth Borne is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from May 2022 to January 2024. A member of President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance, she is the second woman to hold the position of Prime Minister after Édith Cresson, who served from 1991 to 1992. Since December 2024, she has served as Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research in the Bayrou government.
Gabriel Nissim Attal de Couriss is a French politician who served as Prime Minister of France from January to September 2024. As a member of the Renaissance party, Attal rapidly rose up the political ranks following his election to the National Assembly in June 2017. He became the Junior Minister to the Minister of National Education and Youth in 2018, which made him the youngest person to serve in the Government of France; the Spokesperson of the Government in 2020; the Minister of Public Action and Accounts in 2022; and the Minister of National Education and Youth in 2023.
Legislative elections in France, or general elections per the Constitution's wording, determine who becomes Members of Parliament, each with the right to sit in the National Assembly, which is the lower house of the French Parliament.
Legislative elections were held in France on 12 and 19 June 2022 to elect the 577 members of the 16th National Assembly of the Fifth Republic. The elections took place following the 2022 French presidential election, which was held in April 2022. They have been described as the most indecisive legislative elections since the establishment of the five-year presidential term in 2000 and subsequent change of the electoral calendar in 2002. The governing Ensemble coalition remained the largest bloc in the National Assembly but substantially lost its ruling majority, resulting in the formation of France's first minority government since 1993; for the first time since 1997, the incumbent president of France did not have an absolute majority in Parliament. As no alliance won a majority, it resulted in a hung parliament for the first time since 1988.
The 2021 The Republicans (LR) congress, also known as the Congress for France, was an organised internal primary held from 1 to 4 December. It was organised by the party in order to nominate the candidate that would represent it in the 2022 presidential election. Valérie Pécresse was chosen as the party's presidential nominee in a two-round voting process.
The 16th legislature of the Fifth French Republic was elected in the 2022 French legislative election. It was preceded by the 15th legislature. On 9 June 2024, following a defeat in the 2024 European Parliament Elections, President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly, as per article 12 of the Constitution of the Fifth French Republic, and called for snap elections on 30 June and 7 July.
Legislative elections were held in France on 30 June and 7 July 2024 to elect all 577 members of the 17th National Assembly of the Fifth French Republic. The election followed the dissolution of the National Assembly by President Emmanuel Macron, triggering a snap election after the National Rally (RN) made substantial gains and Macron's Besoin d'Europe electoral list lost a significant number of seats in the 2024 European Parliament election in France.
The Union of the Far-Right was a political and electoral descriptor created by the French Ministry of the Interior for the 2024 French legislative election to denote candidates from The Republicans (LR) party that were supported and endorsed by the National Rally (RN). Le Monde classified these investitures as joint LR–RN candidacies. Following the second round of the election, a total of seventeen Union of the Far-Right candidates were elected to the National Assembly.
France entered a political crisis after the 2024 French legislative election organized by the French president Emmanuel Macron in June 2024, which resulted in a hung parliament with the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) leading a plurality of seats. The French government submitted its resignation on 15 July 2024 but was kept in place by the president pending negotiations to appoint a new prime minister to form a new government.
The Barnier government was the 45th government of France during the period of the French Fifth Republic. It was formed in September 2024 after President Emmanuel Macron appointed Michel Barnier as Prime Minister on 5 September, replacing Gabriel Attal. It was a caretaker government from 5 December until its dissolution on 13 December 2024.
On 4 December 2024, the Barnier government in France headed by Michel Barnier of The Republicans collapsed following a successful vote of no confidence in the National Assembly. Part of an extended political crisis, the vote of no confidence was the first to pass since 1962 and resulted in Barnier's government being the shortest serving in the history of the French Fifth Republic.
The Bayrou government is the forty-sixth and incumbent government of France. It was formed in December 2024 after President Emmanuel Macron appointed François Bayrou as Prime Minister on 13 December, replacing caretaker Michel Barnier, after losing a motion of no-confidence, something that has not happened since 1962. The motion was supported by the vast majority of New Popular Front and National Rally MPs and all Union of the Right for the Republic MPs.
