Reuters and AFP

The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, September 6, 2024, p. 25

Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday appointed Michel Barnier, the former European Union negotiator for the Brexitafter weeks of long conversations for the formation of a unity governmentafter early legislative elections that produced no conclusive results. It will require a lot of listening and a lot of respect. Respect between the government and Parliament, by all political forces (…) and I will start working on it from tonight.said Barnier, 73.

Macron has triggered a political crisis in France by bringing forward legislative elections, scheduled for 2027, which have left the National Assembly (lower house) with the three main blocs, all far from an absolute majority.

In the two rounds, held on June 30 and July 7, the president’s centrist coalition finished second with 163 seats, behind the alliance of left-wing parties, the New Popular Front, which secured a relative majority with 182, followed by the National Rally with 143, in the 577-member assembly.

Following the results, Macron accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal on July 16, but asked him to remain in charge of a caretaker government until a new cabinet was formed. He has considered a series of possible prime ministers in recent weeks, none of whom have mustered enough support to guarantee a stable government. There is no guarantee that a government led by Barnier will be able to get the reforms approved by a divided parliament. He could still count on the support of his party, The Republicans, which won 6.5 percent of the vote in the election, and of the president’s coalition.

The far-right National Rally, one of the largest in parliament after the election, said it would not immediately censure Barnier if he met certain conditions.