France has appointed Michel Barnier, the European Commission's top official, as its new prime minister, 60 days after President Emmanuel Macron's election plunged French politics into chaos, splitting the country into three parties.
Michel Barnier, a veteran French centrist globalist politician who has held key positions in the French government and the European Union since 1993, has been appointed prime minister by President Emmanuel Macron and will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the country under his direction. The post has been vacant for 51 days since the resignation of former prime minister Gabriel Attal on July 16, making it the longest vacancy since World War II.
A seasoned political activist and well known across Europe as a tough Brexit negotiator, credited with punishing Britain for its bold move to withdraw from the European project, Barnier faces an uphill battle: Since President Macron called snap elections earlier this year, France's parliament has been divided into three factions – a globalist centrist, a far-left and a populist right – with neither a majority nor a realistic hope of forming a coalition government.
Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) has vowed to topple any government that does not meet its demands, but perhaps Le Pen's biggest obstacle is the New Popular Front (NFP), an electoral coalition of all of France's left-wing parties, from moderate Social Democrats to the Communists. France's unusual two-stage electoral system gave the coalition the most seats, but Le Pen's right-wing populists won the most votes by a significant margin, resulting in the NFP demanding the right to choose the next prime minister.
Having ignored their choice of Socialist Lucy Castets, they are likely to become highly hostile towards the globalist centre-right Barnier, who will now have to form a government and recruit ministers.
As it stands, Le Pen, a populist calling for border controls, has said she won't immediately vote against Barnier, but will wait to see what policy platform he proposes first. RN revealed earlier this week that as talks get underway over other potential prime ministerial candidates (which, incredibly, include former French presidents Hollande and Sarkozy, presumably in advisory roles), the party has “red lines” it must respect.
these are, Reporton wednesday Figaro, That RN politicians be treated with respect by the new government. This may seem a strange or even petulant demand to those familiar with other political systems, but the RN and its predecessor, the National Front, have been treated as filthy and undesirable for decades and completely excluded from all political activity. Any attempt by the party to get involved in national politics has been subject to a years-long “cordon d'état” or firewall, and under no circumstances should its representatives be barred from the process.
Resentment at this treatment was expressed in the wording of the demands, which, according to newspaper reports, asked the new government to “stop treating us like victims of the plague. [the Prime Minister] “The RN respects our elected representatives,” it insists. The RN also demands that any new government not allow immigration into the country and protect the interests of the working class, the party's core demographic, but perhaps the most important requirement for supporting a new government is electoral reform.
This is a real problem for the RN, which has performed very well in traditional French elections but is generally at a big disadvantage when it comes to winning seats under the two-round voting system: in elections that shook parliament earlier this year, the RN won millions more votes than the NFP but far fewer seats.
The RN’s insistence on proportional representation makes sense, but it remains to be seen whether the political establishment will be willing to give up an electoral system that so obviously disadvantages the populists they despise. But Barnier has taken a more hardline stance in soliciting political support in France in recent years, and he may find common ground with the RN, if not a left-wing coalition.
President Emmanuel Macron, in a statement on Thursday about Barnier's selection as prime minister, said he wanted a “unitary government” following an “unprecedented” period in French politics.
