For the first time since 1991, France will welcome French-speaking heads of state and government to Villers-Cotterêts and Paris on 4 and 5 October 2024 for the 19th Francophonie Summit

The Barnier government appears to be far from the national unity that was promised by Emmanuel Macron as it is almost evenly split between Renaissance and the right-wing party; only Didier Migaud, in Justice, appears as a social-democratic figure

The parliamentary leader of the far-right Rassemblement National party called for new elections next year, just a few months after the snap elections that plunged the country into a political stalemate

Active in politics for more than 50 years, Michel Barnier, new prime minister, is best known as the EU's chief negotiator during the Brexit years; since his teenage years a staunch and patriotic Conservative, at 27 he became the youngest MP ever elected