By Nur Asena Erturk
French President Emmanuel Macron Friday ended the political stalemate and appointed Francois Bayrou as the new prime minister after lawmakers toppled Michel Barnier and his government last week through a no-confidence vote.
Born in 1951 in a rural environment to farmer parents in southwestern France’s Borderes town, Bayrou is a centrist politician who joined politics in 1974 and studied literature at university.
His political career started in 1982, and he became a town councilor in Pau a year later, then a member of the National Assembly -- the lower chamber of the French parliament -- in 1986 for the department of Pyrenees-Atlantiques.
Bayrou was nominated education minister in 1993 in Prime Minister Edouard Balladur’s Cabinet.
He has been the mayor of the southwestern town of Pau since 2014, the president of the party Democratic Movement (Mouvement Democrate, or MoDem), and a close ally of President Macron. He was appointed high commissioner for planning in 2020.
Also a former member of the EU Parliament, Bayrou was a presidential candidate in three elections - 2002, 2007, and 2012 - and decided to support Emmanuel Macron in the 2017 elections.
During his 2002 campaign, he left a bad impression when he slapped a child who tried to pick his pocket in the eastern city of Strasbourg.
Bayrou became Macron's fourth premier in less than a year, and sixth since 2017.