Macron appoints new govt in shift to right

PARIS, Sept 22 (AFP): France finally got a new government Saturday in a shift to the right, as left-wing protesters took to the streets to denounce what they say is a denial of July's election results.

The cabinet announced by French President Emmanuel Macron and led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier comes 11 weeks after an inconclusive parliamentary election.

Barnier's first major task will be to submit a 2025 budget plan addressing France's financial situation, which the prime minister this week called "very serious".

Conservative Barnier is best known internationally for leading the European Union's Brexit negotiations with the UK.

More recently, he has had the difficult job of submitting a cabinet for Macron's approval that has the best chance of surviving a no-confidence motion in parliament.

Talks on the distribution of the 39 cabinet posts continued right up to Saturday's official announcement, insiders said, with moments of high tension between the president and his prime minister.

Opposition politicians from the left have already announced they will challenge his government with a confidence motion.

In the July election, a left-wing bloc called the New Popular Front (NFP) won the most parliamentary seats of any political bloc, but not enough for an overall majority.

Macron argued that the left would be unable to muster enough support to form a government that would not immediately be brought down in parliament.

He turned instead to Barnier to lead a government drawing mostly on parliamentary support from Macron's allies, as well as from the conservative Republicans (LR) and the centrists groups.