A staff of 38 ministers, is that a lot or not?

Gabriel Attal not being a fan of fair play, the former Prime Minister has slightly spoiled the composition of the new government, a revelation that Michel Barnier should normally have made. According to the fallen “political prodigy”, we would therefore start with 38 ministers, including secretaries of state. Put like that, it seems like a large number. Really?

Compared to Macron’s previous governments, we are in a high average, without being historic. In a five-and-a-half-year term, the president will have already used quite a few governments, with a very variable number of ministers. Thus, the Attal government, succeeded by Michel Barnier, had 34 ministers (13 ministers, 16 deputy ministers and five secretaries of state). Two peaks were reached, by the Élisabeth Borne government, with 41 members (including 16 ministers and 25 deputy ministers or secretaries of state), and Jean Castex, with 42 (15 ministers and 26 deputy ministers or secretaries of state). Michel Barnier and his government will therefore not reach unexplored heights.

The Pierre Mauroy summit

It all started in 2017, with much fewer troops since the first Edouard Philippe government (that doesn’t make us any younger) had only 23 small members, Emmanuel Macron having always proclaimed his ambition of reduced troops in government and refusing to have “a Mexican army”. Oops.

And because there was a political life before Emmanuel Macron (yes, yes, we swear), the observation could be the same for all previous governments. Yes, 38 ministers is clearly a high trend, but it is not exceptional. Two governments of François Hollande have notably done as much (Bernard Cazeneuve, 38 members) and more (Jean-Marc Ayrault, second version: 39 guys in total).

Under Nicolas Sarkozy, the number of members of the government varied between only 21 and 32. Obviously, who says government provided requires to speak of Pierre Mauroy, Prime Minister under the first mandate of François Mitterand before the cohabitation, and for whom abundance of good did not hurt. Thus count, in three governments, twice 42 members all the same. Come on, one more effort Michel…

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