Right-wing Prime Minister Michel Barnier has only just taken office. But his appointment has made many French people angry. One left-wing populist even speaks of a stolen election.
In Paris alone, there were reportedly 26,000 protesters on Saturday. But people also took to the streets in many other cities such as Nantes, Nice, Marseille and Strasbourg to protest against the 73-year-old conservative’s takeover of the government. The demonstrators’ anger was also directed against President Emmanuel Macron. The left emerged as the strongest force in the parliamentary elections at the beginning of July, but does not have a majority of its own. Nevertheless, the left-wing alliance with the relatively unknown politician Lucie Castests wanted to appoint the prime minister, because the other political camps did not win a majority of their own either.
France’s head of government is “under observation”
President Emmanuel Macron, however, appointed the conservative former EU Commissioner Barnier as head of government. The right-wing populist RN of Marine Le Pen has refrained from holding a vote of no confidence in the new prime minister for the time being and announced that it would wait for his government statement. RN party leader Jordan Bardella said on Saturday that Barnier was a head of government “under observation”.
The left therefore sees Barnier as a head of government at Le Pen’s mercy. They accuse Macron of a kind of “coup d’état”. Barnier said on Friday evening that he was ready to bring ministers from all political camps into his government, including from the left. Barnier responded to the RN leader’s comments on Saturday by saying that he was “under the observation of all French people”.
Barnier sharply rejected the accusation of a “coup d’état”. It was about an “action plan for governing”, he said, adding that the country’s financial situation was “serious”. “What Macron is offering us is not cohabitation, it is a provocation,” said the leader of the Greens, Marine Tondelier, to broadcaster BFMTV at a demonstration in Lille.
The left-wing populist Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose party La France Insoumise (LFI) is part of the left-wing alliance like the Greens, had called for the demonstration in Paris with the words: “The election was stolen.” An LFI representative spoke on Saturday of 300,000 demonstrators, 160,000 of them in Paris alone.
The demonstrators’ anger was also openly directed against Macron, who was being called for to resign. “The Fifth Republic is collapsing,” said demonstrator Manon Bonijol. “Voting is pointless as long as Macron is in power,” the 21-year-old added in Paris.
However, only a few representatives from the left wing joined a call for Macron’s resignation, which the LFI had taken up from student unions. Neither the major unions nor the Socialist Party supported the call for demonstrations and only a few MPs signed a proposal to remove the president.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
