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00:00For the latest on this, I'm joined by our French politics editor, Marc Perlman.
00:03Marc, what came out of these early meetings today,
00:05ahead of this more official meeting this afternoon?
00:07Well, you know, generally, those ceremonies are speeches,
00:13feral speeches, followed by, you know, a small introduction by the ministers.
00:17But there was one particularly interesting moment at the interior minister,
00:22where you had two heavyweights, the outgoing interior minister, Gérald Darmanin,
00:27handing over to the leader of the Conservative Party in the Senate, Bruno Retailleau,
00:32who is known as a conservative, you know, a really, really conservative person.
00:38And many have viewed his choice by Michel Barnier and Emmanuel Macron
00:44as a way to address the voters who voted for the national rally in the legislative elections,
00:50and are obviously not represented in the government.
00:53Here's what Bruno Retailleau had to say about his three top priorities.
01:03The French want more order.
01:05Order in the street, order on the border.
01:09The policies of the majority has three priorities.
01:12You'll easily remember them.
01:16The first, re-establish order.
01:20The second, re-establish order.
01:23The third, re-establish order.
01:26Because I believe in order.
01:29Order as a condition for freedom.
01:31When there's no order, freedom is under threat.
01:37So that's all very clear.
01:38But what does he mean exactly by re-establish order?
01:41Well, this means that he considers there's lawlessness here in France.
01:46And in another bit of the speech, he said this is also about democracy.
01:51We had elections, legislative elections, and we have to listen to what the voter says,
01:56especially in the first round of those elections.
01:59He didn't mention the national rally, but everyone understood that this is what he means.
02:04He is there essentially to try to allay the concerns of those who voted for the national rally,
02:11and also to make sure that Marine Le Pen doesn't bury this government
02:17by pulling the trigger of the no-confidence motion
02:21if she decides to join with the left,
02:23the left which has already announced that it will definitely vote a no-confidence motion.
02:28So what's the likelihood that Barnier's government
02:29will actually face this no-confidence motion?
02:32Is that a done deal?
02:32The question is more when than if.
02:36Obviously, if you look at the math in the National Assembly,
02:38you add the votes of the leftist coalition and the national rally,
02:42they have more than enough to pass a no-confidence motion
02:46against the government of Michel Barnier.
02:49The left has said, we'll do it immediately, from the get-go.
02:52Marine Le Pen has said, well, we'll wait and see.
02:55We'll wait and see what Michel Barnier has to propose in terms of the budget.
02:59We know the budget is a top priority, financial markets watching,
03:04Brussels clearly monitoring what's happening,
03:07and we know that it's already going to be a big, big problem,
03:10but they're also going to be watching what this government does on immigration,
03:15does on fighting against crime,
03:17and this is clearly the main task of Bruno Retailleau,
03:21so this is probably why we had this unusually political speech
03:25this morning at the interior minister.