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.”