5/9/2024–|Last update: 5/9/202408:33 PM (Makkah Time)
ParisThe series of consultations launched by French President Emmanuel Macron with the main political forces finally ended with the announcement of Michel Barnier as Prime Minister to form a “unity government in the service of the country,” according to a statement from the Elysee Palace.
While Macron sought to choose a figure capable of uniting the political spectrum and avoiding “blame” in the National Assembly without a majority or a strong coalition after the results of the early legislative elections last June, the new prime minister was quickly placed in the category of “compatible” with Macron and the leader of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen.
Thus, France has moved from its youngest prime minister, Gabriel Attal (34 years old), to its oldest prime minister, with Les Républicains member Barnier at 73 years old.
Barnier began his political career in the 1970s and held various ministerial positions under former presidents François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, and was the EU’s chief negotiator on Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Elections in the wind
As expected, the leader of the “France Insoumise” party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, was quick to object to Macron’s choice, saying “the elections were stolen from the French” and calling in a video posted on social media for “the strongest possible mobilization” on Saturday against what he called the “coup d’état” carried out by the President of the Republic after he refused to nominate the candidate of the left-wing coalition, Lucie Castets.
Commenting on this, Virginie Martin, professor of political science and sociology at Kedge Business School in Paris, believes that Macron’s decision goes against what the people voted for during the last legislative elections, noting that even though the “New Popular Front” won the vote and came in first place, it did not have an absolute majority and did not make the necessary efforts to present a strong candidate to enter the Matignon Palace, which led to Barnier being chosen in the end.
Martin added – in an interview with Al Jazeera Net – that today’s decision is also the result of the failure of the left, which “had to choose between being a revolutionary left or a government left, because a leftist government must take into consideration the importance of compromise and political realism.” She considered that the current left “lost the culture of power and governance after the austerity heroics of 1983 during the Mitterrand era and the presidency of Hollande in 2012, while the right came to prove the opposite and succeeded in doing so due to recent developments.”
For her part, Mathilde Panot, the head of the Mélenchon party’s deputies, believes that “the president has refused to respect popular sovereignty” and that “52 days after the government’s defeat at the ballot box, Macron is still living as an autocrat.”
Blessed right
The Elysee said in a press release that this appointment “comes after an unprecedented round of consultations, during which the president – in accordance with his constitutional duty – confirmed that the prime minister and the next government will create the necessary conditions to be as stable as possible and give themselves the widest possible opportunities to meet.”
Speaking to Al Jazeera Net, MP Jerome Le Gavignet of the France Insoumise party said that Barnier was essentially Marine Le Pen’s choice. He tweeted that Barnier had always been respected by the National Rally party and was close to its far-right programme, especially on immigration, and thus we now have a Macron-Le Pen government in France, he said.
When academic Martin was asked whether Macron’s choice was in line with Le Pen, she replied that it seemed more complicated than that, and that the coming days would show whether the new government’s legislative charters would be in the interest of the far right or not, such as the immigration file and purchasing power. If that happens, the spokeswoman believes that this government will not face a censure decision in parliament.
It is an analysis that is consistent with what was stated by the leader of the National Rally party, Jordan Bardella, who said: “We will judge Barnier’s policy speech, his budget decisions and his actions through the evidence,” stressing that oversight of his government will not be automatic for his party.
democratic denial
The National Secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, described the current political situation via the “X” platform as “democratic denial that has reached its peak: a prime minister from the party that came in fourth place and did not even participate in the Republican Front against the far right,” considering that France is entering a “systemic crisis.”
While the Socialist Party announced – in a press release – that Macron is “trampling on the votes of the French people”, stressing that he is imposing “censorship” on Barnier’s government.
In turn, Logaver described Macron’s choice, in an interview with Al Jazeera Net, as an “anti-democratic coup on all levels” because the French who voted in the last legislative elections did not vote for this result.
He added, “The only person responsible for this situation is the president because he acts like an absolute monarch. As for us (the France Insoumise party), we have launched a campaign to remove the president of the republic and we call on the French people to demonstrate next Saturday against Macron’s coup.”
Virginie agrees, saying that there is a form of denial of democracy by Macron who “instead of choosing former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve because he was partially compatible with him and he is not from the left-wing coalition, he moved away and went in the opposite direction, to the right.”
