Macron ally François Bayrou appointed new French prime minister

France’s embattled President Emmanuel Macron has appointed centrist ally Francois Bayrou as prime minister, he announced on Friday, as he seeks to calm a political crisis that has left his authority dwindling by the day.

Macron’s office made the announcement a week after the former office holder Michel Barnier lost a vote of no confidence, forcing him to submit his resignation, CNN reported. 

Bayrou ran for president three times before rallying behind Macron in 2017. The 73-year-old is the founder of the centrist Democratic Movement political party (MoDem), and mayor of the southwestern town of Pau.

He must now form a government and look to pass a budget through a sharply divided parliament, where Macron faces an avowed opposition from both the left-wing and far-right blocs.

“Everyone is aware of the difficulty of the task,” Bayrou told reporters in Paris on Friday. “I think that there is a path to be found that brings people together instead of dividing them.”