French President Emmanuel Macron appointed Antoine Armand as finance minister, thrusting a 33-year-old with limited political experience into an urgent budget battle in which he must bring fiscal discipline while maintaining tacit support from the far right to avoid government collapse.

The government still faces two challenges in the coming weeks: the risk of a no-confidence vote and a tight budget deadline.

In the new parliament, he had been set to head the economic committee in the lower house until Barnier tapped him for the top job at the powerful Ministry of Economics and Finance. Armand is no stranger to "Bercy" as the ministry is often called in France,