After a delay of 26 days, on Friday May 20th Emmanuel Macron finally appointed the 27 members of the new government under recently-installed prime minister Élisabeth Borne. As Ilyes Ramdani reports, its composition is strikingly similar to the old government and is still anchored firmly to the right. Historian Pap Ndiaye, who was a surprise appointment as minister of education, represents something of an anomaly alongside the rest of the ministerial team.
On the night of the first round of the presidential election in April Emmanuel Macron promised to “invent something new”. And rather grandly he declared: “Nothing should stay as it was before.” However, 26 days after his election, the head of state has decided that his new government will in fact be pretty similar to what has gone before, displaying direct continuity with his first administration. This became clear on Friday May 20th when Alexis Kohler, secretary general at the Élysée and Macron's chief of staff – who has himself stayed in post - announced the names of the 27 members of the new government under prime minister Élisabeth Borne. No fewer than 14 of them had been members of the last government under Jean Castex.
