We have a PM!

[RobertArthur]

Ms Hidalgo, mayor of Paris, in Le Figaro. Name of this not very popular political game: look in the mirror, what do you see?

‘How did we miss out on history?’ Hidalgo believes that the PS prevented the appointment of a left-wing prime minister.

At a press conference the Socialist mayor of Paris expressed her ‘deep anger’ and denounced the Left's responsibility for Michel Barnier's appointment as Matignon. ‘I know Michel Barnier well, he has been a very good adviser since Paris‘ bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games’, said the Mayor of Paris.

[MAD87]

I've always liked Barnier, but he came across as a bit wishy--washy last night, vague and showing his age. One can only hope for something other than a free-for-all.

[Quiksilver]

Eek! It's going to take a very strong character to stand up to Macron and the various factions in L'Assemblée. Let's hope he can cut it!

[niemeyjt]

And now the government - if it lasts. How long before the next GE is possible?

Macron’s new government on the ropes 12 hours after being unveiled

Emmanuel Macron’s new government faces no-confidence votes less than 12 hours after it was unveiled

On Saturday night Michel Barnier, the French prime minister, unveiled his new centre-Right cabinet, awarding plum posts such as interior and finance ministers to mainstream conservatives and Macron allies, provoking anger from the opposition and threats to topple the government.

Minutes after the line-up was announced, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the radical Left party France Unbowed (LFI), described the cabinet as a familiar cast of players from a “disaster movie” that the country has seen before.

“We need to get rid of it as soon as possible,” he said on X.

Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-Right National Rally (RN), was also quick to denounce the new government, which excludes deputies from both the Leftist bloc the New Popular Front (NFP) and the RN. The NFP includes France Unbowed, Socialists, Greens and the Communists.

“This ‘new’ government signals the return of Macronism through the back door,” Mr Bardella said.

“What the French people have twice democratically rejected cannot be allowed to return through pitiful party politics and political calculations. It is therefore a government with no future.”

François Hollande, a former president and Socialist deputy within the NFP, also backed a motion of no-confidence, calling it “the right solution” during an interview with local French news site France Bleu Limousin on Sunday morning. The Left has been almost completely shut out of the administration, despite forming an alliance that won the highest number of seats.

“Michel Barnier’s government is a fragile government,” Mr Hollande said, adding that it depended on the RN for survival and there were no heavyweights in the cabinet.

Mr Barnier’s long-awaited cabinet comes nearly three months after a snap general election delivered a hung parliament. Though the Leftist coalition the NFP won the most seats, it failed to secure an overall majority.

In a sign that the new government will take a hardline approach to immigration, Mr Barnier awarded the post of minister of the interior to fellow Republican Bruno Retailleau, described in the French press as a symbol of the conservative far-Right. The senator from Vendée was vocally opposed to same-sex marriage, and voted against the constitutionalisation of abortion earlier in 2024.

Mr Retailleau’s approach to immigration also aligns closely with the far-Right. He has pushed for French natives to be given priority access to social benefits, and for reducing the scope of emergency medical aid to undocumented people.

Migrant aid and immigration advocates expressed alarm at Mr Retailleau’s appointment, who has vowed order, authority and firmness to tackle the issue.

“He equates immigration with delinquency,” Fanélie Carrey-Conte, general secretary of migrant and refugee association Cimade, told Le Monde. “We fear a new political and legislative sequence of stigmatisation and attacks on migrants’ rights.”

source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/ ... es-france/

[ajm]

Enfin. Michel Barnier, the oldest PM, will now succeed Attal, the youngest.

You might have!
I just have a bloke who's PM of a country where I live & pay considerable taxes yet am totally disenfranchised.

If you don't like being disenfranchised either live where you can vote or take french nationality

[Blaze]

“This ‘new’ government signals the return of Macronism through the back door,” Mr Bardella said.

What did he expect ??

François Hollande's comment was that he didn't really understand why Macron dissolved Parliament to then come back with more or less the same thing.

I fully expected some rants from Melenchon - perhaps he's still on holiday ??

[MAD87]

That must be the only time Flanby has spoken anything approaching the truth.

Even Mélenchon's own camp doesn't want him opening his mouth.

There can't be another electon for a year, so either they'll lose one or more votes of confidence and collapse or rule by article 49.3. Lovely prospect.

I'm not a socialist, although I voted NFP, but I have a great deal of sympathy with all the non-conservatives. The whole thing is a shambles and undemocratic.

[Quiksilver]

What is democracy in the West? A 'choice' between two equally unpalatable, greedy, incompetent sets of politicians with not a gramme of concern for the people they supposedly represent. Is it any wonder that so many people don't even bother to vote nowadays?

[MAD87]

@Quicksilver: tout à fait. And anyone who watches French TV and is concerned about the environment will grind their teeth watching each minister getting into his/her official limo for a trip of a few hundred metres. Why can't there be a minibus pickin up & droppin them off? If they're serious about cutting expenditure, that's a good place to start.

[niemeyjt]

But they all do it.

Remember John "two jags" Prescott doing 100m in a car "to protect his wife's hairdo"

Or Cameron cycling to help the environment with his red box in a car behind - though in his case I guess there was a security detail as well.

But most politicians are hypocrites - do as we say don't do as we do.