French President Emmanuel Macron has chosen François Bayrou to be the country's next prime minister, tasking the veteran centrist with steering the country out of its second major political crisis in the last six months.
The 73-year-old is expected to put forward his list of ministers in the coming days.
Following the announcement, Mr Bayrou said he was aware the task of steering a government in a deeply divided country with no clear parliamentary majority would be difficult.
"Everybody knows the road will be long," he told BFM television reporters as he left his offices.
Mr Bayrou is the leader of the centrist Democratic Movement (MoDem) party, and was heavily tipped to be Mr Macron's pick for the position after he reportedly met with the president on Friday morning, local time.
But it was not clear at the time whether Mr Macron planned to receive Mr Bayrou to announce his appointment or to inform him he had chosen another candidate.
BFMTV reported the talks, which ran for nearly two hours, had been "tense".
The announcement came nine days after previous prime minister Michel Barnier was , pushing France into fresh political crisis.
Following the no-confidence vote, Mr Macron told party leaders on Tuesday he would name a new prime minister within 48 hours.
He missed the deadline, with an aide telling the AFP news agency he would make the announcement the following morning. It came after midday, local time.
Mr Barnier is expected to hand over power to his successor at a ceremony in the courtyard of the Matignon, the seat of the French government.
Another no-confidence vote on the table
France's centre-left Socialists won't enter the new government under Mr Bayrou, party chairman Boris Vallaud said on Friday.
Mr Vallaud called the pick a "risky" choice.
"It's yet another insult to democracy," Manuel Bompard, a senior LFI lawmaker, said on X.
"To topple Bayrou is to topple Macron."
Mathilde Panot, head of the hard-left France Unbowed group at the National Assembly, criticised Mr Bayrou's appointment in a message on X, labelling it "the continuity of bad policies".
She said her party was ready to vote for a no-confidence motion against the new government.
More moderate left wingers were also unhappy. "Poor France," Green Party chief Marine Tondelier said on X.
She told BFMTV that her lawmakers would have "no other choice" but to censure Mr Bayrou's government if it did not change its economic policy and kept hardliner Bruno Retailleau as interior minister.
Communist leader Fabien Roussel said his party would hold fire against Mr Bayrou as long as he did not try to ram through legislation.
National Rally's Jordan Bardella said after the announcement that the far-right party had no immediate plans to censure the new prime minister, adding Mr Bayrou should speak with other political parties.
"This new prime minister must understand that he has no majority in parliament … our red lines remain," Mr Bardella said.
The far right's Marine Le Pen also suggested Mr Bayrou's appointment might lead to more deadlock.
"We are asking him to do what his predecessor was unwilling to do: listen to the opposition and build a reasonable, well-considered budget," she said on X.
Beyond Bayrou, prime ministerial contenders included former Socialist prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve, Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu, and former foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.
Mr Le Drian said on Thursday he had turned down the job.
"In two and a half years, I'll be 80. It wouldn't be serious," he told regional outlet Le Penthievre.
France sees fourth prime minister this year
Mr Bayrou's appointment makes him the fourth prime minister France has seen in 2024, after Michel Barnier, Gabriel Attal and Élisabeth Borne. He is also the sixth to serve during Mr Macron's presidency.
Each prime minister under Mr Macron has served successively less time in office.
Élisabeth Borne resigned in January amid a cabinet reshuffle and after contentious legislation passed allowing the government more deportation powers.
Mr Attal resigned in July following snap elections, but stayed on with his ministers in a caretaker capacity during the 50 days France was left without an official prime minister.
In September, Mr Macron named Mr Barnier as the next prime minister as a bitterly divided parliament brought the position into dispute.
But Mr Barnier was ousted in a historic no-confidence vote on December 4 after he forced through a social security budget bill without a vote in parliament.
Mr Bayrou will be vulnerable to no-confidence votes until at least July, when France will be able to hold a new parliamentary election.
In an address to the nation, Mr Macron vowed to remain in office until his term ends in 2027.
Bayrou once ran for president himself
Mr Bayrou has enjoyed a long and varied political career, which has seen him work with former right-wing presidents Valery Giscard d'Estaing and Jacques Chirac before backing François Hollande in 2012.
He first became well known to the French public when he was education minister from 1993 to 1997 in a conservative government.
He is a father of six children, a practising Catholic who is also a staunch supporter of France's secular system, and the author of a biography of the 16th- and 17th-century French king Henry IV.
He is also the longtime mayor of the south-western town Pau, and has himself run for president three times — in 2002, 2007 and 2012.
He catapulted in notoriety during the 2002 presidential campaign when he slapped a child who tried to pick his pocket.
He won less than 7 per cent of the vote and was eliminated in the first round.
Mr Bayrou founded the Democratic Movement (MoDem) party in 2007. It has been allied to Mr Macron's ruling alliance since 2017.
Mr Macron appointed Mr Bayrou as justice minister when he took the presidency in 2017, but Mr Bayrou resigned only weeks later amid an investigation into his party's alleged fraudulent employment of parliamentary assistants.
The case dragged on for seven years, until he was acquitted earlier this year with a judge ruling that he was owed the "benefit of the doubt".
His acquittal is still subject to an appeal by prosecutors.
The court found eight other party officials guilty and sentenced the party to pay a fine.
ABC/Wires
