The president is the cause of the problem and will depart by force of factssays Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La Francia Insumisa

▲ Television broadcast of yesterday’s speech by French President Emmanuel Macron, in an image captured in a bar located in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, in the southwest of the European country.Photo Ap

Afp

La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, December 6, 2024, p. 24

Paris. French President Emmanuel Macron announced yesterday that he will appoint in the next few days a prime minister to replace Michel Barnier, dismissed by Parliament, while ruling out resignation and accusing the far right and the far left of having joined together to sow the disorder.

The next prime minister will have as his mission form a government of general interest that represents all the political forces of a government arc that can participate in it or, at least, that undertakes not to censor itexplained the center-right president in a speech broadcast last night on television.

The mandate that you democratically entrusted to me is a five-year mandate and I will exercise it fully until the end.in 2027, he stressed, at a time when calls for him to resign are multiplying.

anti-republican front

Macron claimed that the conservative Barnier fell because the far right and the far left united in a anti-republican front to cause its fall and sow the disorder.

Michel Barnier formally presented his resignation to Macron yesterday, as a consequence of the approval of the motion of censure against him proposed by the radical left and supported by Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party.

The leader of the radical left party France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, stated shortly after the televised speech that Macron is the cause of the problem and? will depart by force of facts.

Dead end, vicious circle: Concern and boredom are evident among the French interviewed by Afp, when the country is once again without a government.

France was already without a government several weeks after the early legislative elections in July, which left a National Assembly (lower house) without clear majorities and divided into three irreconcilable blocs: left, center-right and extreme right.

Barnier’s fall was caused by the rejection of his 2025 budget, which included austerity measures that he considered essential to stabilize finances.

The motion of censure stopped the entire financial plan of the Executive and led to the automatic renewal of the current budget for next year.

Calm in the Stock Market

The markets were instead calm, with the Paris Stock Exchange rising slightly and the yield on French government bonds trending downward.

There is no indication of how long it will take Macron to name Barnier’s successor or what his political orientation will be.

Among the candidates mentioned are centrist leader François Bayrou, Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu and former socialist prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

The left, the center or the right seem far from understanding about a new coalition government.