RENNES, France >> French President Emmanuel Macron appointed a new cabinet Monday, less than three weeks after the previous government collapsed over a bitter budgetary stalemate.

It was unclear how long the government might last or whether it would be able to assuage broader concerns about political instability in Europe at a time when the region faces significant security and economic challenges.

The center-right orientation of the new French government roughly mirrors that of the previous one, which lasted less than three months after coming under attack from the left and the far right in parliament.

It demonstrates that Macron and his new prime minister, François Bayrou, remain committed to the idea that France can be governed from the center, even amid a period of intense political polarization. But choosing another government with a rightward slant may make it hard to bring left-leaning lawmakers in on a much-needed deal to fund the government next year.

At the very least, the announcement of new ministers gives France a functioning government at a time when Germany, another cornerstone of the European Union, remains adrift. The German government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz collapsed this month, and new elections are likely to take place in late February.

The political turmoil in the two heavyweight countries of Europe comes at a particularly perilous time for the continent. The election of Donald Trump as U.S. president for a second time has spurred concerns about whether the United States will continue to support Ukraine in the war against Russia and about whether Trump might upend NATO.

There are also growing worries about anemic economic growth in Europe compared with the United States and about the prospect of Trump’s following through on threats to impose tariffs that could set off a trade war.

France, struggling with high debt and a widening deficit, has been stuck in neutral as its politicians have proved incapable of agreeing on a budget for the coming year.

The previous prime minister, Michel Barnier, a conservative, proposed a series of tax increases and spending cuts to curb the ballooning public debt. But those efforts went down in flames as powerful forces from both the left and the far right in the fractious lower house of parliament refused to go along. Barnier resigned this month after a no-confidence vote.

It remains unclear how Bayrou, a seasoned centrist appointed Dec. 13, might change course and solve the budget impasse.

The government continues to operate in the absence of a 2025 budget under special legislation passed Dec. 16 that avoids disruption of public services. But every day without a true budget adds to the country’s debt problems.

“France needs a budget,” Bayrou said recently on social media. “We should adopt one very quickly, with the objective of mid-February.”

One significant holdover from the last government is Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, a conservative who supports crackdowns on unauthorized immigration and the drug trade. The appointment of another tough-talking politician, Gérald Darmanin, as justice minister signals that the new government will continue to emphasize law and order, in an effort to outflank the far right on that issue. Darmanin previously served as interior minister under Macron.

Élisabeth Borne, a member of Macron’s party, Renaissance, was named to the Cabinet and given a wide brief, including education and research. Borne served as prime minister of France from May 2022 to January, when she resigned amid a Cabinet shake-up.

A left-leaning technocrat, Borne presided over an unpopular law that raised the retirement age and an immigration law that was supported by the right but that upset some of her own ministers.

Two other key members of the previous government, Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu and Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, were kept on in an apparent effort to project stability in foreign policy at a time of international tension and war.

Bayrou is a founder and leader of the Mouvement Démocrate, a centrist party that is part of a coalition alongside Renaissance.

“I am very proud of the team presented tonight,” Bayrou wrote on social media Monday night. “A collective of experience to reconcile and renew trust with all of the French people.”

In a television interview Monday night, Bayrou spoke of “the most difficult” situation that France has faced since World War II, with a budget crisis, no clear political majority, and a time when “a large number of French people think they have been left aside.”

Solving these problems, he said, requires “personalities of moderate sensibilities, balanced, and who believe in the rule of law.”

Under the French Constitution, the president chooses the prime minister and appoints Cabinet members on the prime minister’s recommendation.

Macron remains unpopular in France and has for the most part stayed out of the budget debate, which is the prerogative of the prime minister and Cabinet. Even if Bayrou is able to find a compromise on the spending plan, it may do little to restore the president’s flagging reputation.

As expected, no Cabinet posts were offered to — or demanded by — either the leftist France Unbowed party or the hard-right National Rally, which joined a leftist coalition in the vote that sealed Barnier’s fate this month.