The government still faces two challenges in the coming weeks: the risk of a no-confidence vote and a tight budget deadline.

France's new government, finally appointed two-and-a-half months after elections, features a host of new faces all of whom share the same characteristic -- they are unlikely to stand in 2027 presidential elections.

French President Emmanuel Macron named a new government led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier Saturday, marked by a shift to the right 11 weeks after an inconclusive parliamentary election. It marked "a return to Macronism" and so had "no future whatsoever",