Paris | President Emmanuel Macron of France on Saturday (Sunday AEST) appointed a new cabinet that marked a strong shift to the right, in a nation so divided that it took more than two months to form a government whose prospects of long-term stability are far from clear.

The announcement from the French presidency came two weeks after Mr Macron appointed Michel Barnier, a veteran centre-right politician, as prime minister, in hopes of moving past the political impasse that has paralysed France since its inconclusive parliamentary elections this year.

Bloomberg