Activists say the appointment does not reflect the left’s victory in the legislative elections
▲ Protesters in Paris display a banner Democracy versus austerityduring a protest called by left-wing parties criticising the appointment of Michel Bernier as Prime Minister.Photo Ap
AFP, Sputnik, Europa Press and Ap
The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, September 8, 2024, p. 22
Paris. Thousands of left-wing demonstrators took to the streets across France yesterday to protest against the appointment of centre-right Michel Barnier as prime minister, and to denounce a power stroke President Emmanuel Macron.
Democracy is not only the art of knowing how to accept victory, but the humility to accept defeat.Jean-Luc Mélenchon, head of the La France Insoumise (LFI) party, told the demonstrators at the start of the march in Paris, and urged his followers to prepare for battle: There will be no pausehe promised.
Protester Manon Bonijol said that The Fifth Republic (the republican system in force since 1958 in France) is collapsingin addition to that Voting (in Parliament) will be useless as long as Macron is in poweradded the 21-year-old.
Macron, go away; Macron is a traitor, resign; Stop Macron’s seizure of power, Macron is anti-democracywere the slogans heard from the marchers from Place de la Bastille to Place de la Nation, a correspondent for the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
The radicals of the so-called black block They broke several structures for bus stops and started fires with garbage cans.
The leftist alliance, to which LFI belongs, wanted Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist, to become prime minister, but the French president rejected the idea, arguing that she would not survive a vote of confidence in the divided parliament, AFP reported.
Barnier, 73, is the oldest of the 26 prime ministers who served the Fifth Republic in modern France and replaces the youngest, Gabriel Attal, who was 34 when he was appointed just eight months ago, AP reported.
From the far right, Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally (AN), warned Barnier that the new government would risk being censured if it did not take into account the demands of his party.
I hope that the Prime Minister and the future government will not only be able to get down to work, but will also be attentive to the demands that are now ours.he added.
I think that from today, Barnier is a prime minister under surveillance (…) of a political party that is now an unavoidable part of the parliamentary game.he insisted.
The new prime minister responded to Bardella that The government is under the democratic supervision of all French people and all political sectors.This, after his first official act at the Necker Hospital, where he met with employees of the medical sector.
According to the authorities, 110,000 people took to the streets across the country, 26,000 of them protesting in Paris, but the organizers claimed that there were 300,000 participants (160,000 in the capital) in more than 150 demonstrations held nationwide in Nantes, Nice, Marseille and Strasbourg, among other cities.
Five people were arrested by police for carrying prohibited weapons, throwing projectiles and causing damage to the demonstration in the capital, the authorities said.