Emmanuel Macron appointed the former minister and European Commissioner Michel Barnier as Prime Minister on Thursday, 60 days after the second round of legislative elections. This decision drew disapproval from the left, who denounced it as a “green light” to the National Rally (RN), the party of Marine Le Pen.
Five hours later, the new Prime Minister, a member of The Republicans (LR), arrived at Matignon for the handover with Gabriel Attal, who had resigned 51 days earlier and had already shifted his focus to leading the parliamentary group of Macron’s Renaissance party.
The new Prime Minister, who will be supported by the presidential camp and the LR but lacking a majority, he will need to try to form a government that can survive a parliamentary no-confidence vote and end the most severe political crisis since 1958.
The president “has tasked him with forming a unity government to serve the country and the French people,” said the Élysée in a statement.
In the meantime, the outgoing ministers will remain in office to manage day-to-day affairs during the negotiations.
‘Regime crisis’
More recently, when eyeing the Élysée, this centrist Gaullist had toughened his stance on immigration, advocating for a “moratorium” and, despite being a committed European, even questioning the European Court of Justice in the name of “legal sovereignty.”
But Barnier faces challenges from all sides. On the left, where a no-confidence vote is already promised, the leader of France Unbowed, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, immediately denounced a “stolen election from the French,” claiming that Barnier was appointed “with the permission and perhaps the suggestion of the National Rally,” and calling for the “strongest possible mobilization” at an anti-Macron protest on Saturday.
The leader of the Socialists, Olivier Faure, decried a “regime crisis” and a “democratic denial at its peak,” pointing out that Barnier is from the party that came in fourth and “didn’t even participate in the republican front” against the RN.
Marine Le Pen’s party, which could bring down the future government at any moment by supporting a no-confidence motion filed by the left, remained more cautious. The RN “will judge his general policy speech on its merits,” said the party president, Jordan Bardella.
With AFP
