French President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled his new government almost three months after a snap general election delivered a hung parliament.
The long-awaited new line up, led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier, marks a decisive shift to the right, even though a left-wing alliance won most parliamentary seats.
It comes as the European Union puts France on notice over its spiralling debt, which now far exceeds EU rules.
Among those gaining a position in the new cabinet is Bruno Retailleau, a key member of the conservative Republicans Party founded by former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Just one left-wing politician was given a post in the cabinet, independent Didier Migaud, who was appointed as justice minister.
France’s public-sector deficit is projected to reach around 5.6% of GDP this year and go over 6% in 2025. The EU has a 3% limit on deficits.
Michel Barnier, a veteran conservative, was named as Macron’s prime minister earlier this month.
Members of the left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front (NFP) have threatened a no-confidence motion in the new government.
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon called for the new government to “be got rid of” as soon as possible.
On Saturday, before the cabinet announcement, thousands of left-wing supporters demonstrated in Paris against the incoming government, arguing that the left’s performance in the election was not taken into consideration.
You’re telling me writing something on a piece of paper in a liberal system predicated on being capitalist can’t actually get rid of liberals?
Organize, comrades.
Bit weird that the left have won the elections, yet the president gets to decide how the government is formed…
France has a weird hybrid Presidential/Parliamentary system that no other country has and is really confusing.
Most other countries either have a diminished President whose only real duty is making sure there is a Prime Minister that has a mandate to lead or an empowered President that has a democratic mandate and has more leeway to run the government’s administration.
It’s not that rare in Europe actually, for example Poland have very similar government forming procedure, and guess what, after most recent elections Polish president Duda tried to do identical maneuver, but unlike in France the elections weren’t this close so he didn’t really tried to do de-facto coup like Macron, just mostly maneuvered to exhaust all his time-delaying procedures to give his party colleagues from ending term time to jump the ship safely, destroy the compromising documents (literally, the central security service ABW bought lots of large paper shredders right after elections)
Don’t mind me. I’m jist digging through my post history to give a big fat “I told you so” to all the liberals on Lemmy.
I’m hoping the Communists in France have been reading their Lenin. I can’t think of a better gift Macron could have given the communists. “Left-Wing” Communism, an Infantile Disorder
Chapter 9: “Left-Wing” Communism in Great Britian
Lloyd GeorgeMacron entered into a polemic… with those Liberals who want, not a coalition with the Conservatives, but closer relations with theLabour PartyNew Popular Front (NPF)…Lloyd GeorgeMacron argued that a coalition—and a close coalition at that—between the Liberals and the Conservatives was essential, otherwise there might be a victory for theLabour PartyNPF whichLloyd GeorgeMacron prefers to call “Socialist” … “In Germany it was called socialism, and in Russia it is called Bolshevism,” he went on to say. To Liberals this is unacceptable on principle,Lloyd GeorgeMacron explained, because they stand in principle for private property. “Civilisation is in jeopardy,” the speaker declared, and consequently Liberals and Conservatives must unite. . . .… Thus the liberal bourgeoisie are abandoning the historical system of “two parties” (of exploiters), which has been hallowed by centuries of experience and has been extremely advantageous to the exploiters, and consider it necessary for these two parties to join forces against the
Labour PartyNPF.…
At present,BritishFrench Communists very often find it hard even to approach the masses, and even to get a hearing from them. If I come out as a Communist and call upon them to vote forHendersonCastets and Mélenchon and againstLloyd GeorgeMacron and Le Pen they will certainly give me a hearing. And I shall be able to explain in a popular manner, not only why the Soviets are better than a parliament and why the dictatorship of the proletariat is better than the dictatorship ofChurchillBarnier and Le Pen (disguised with the signboard of bourgeois “democracy”), but also that, with my vote, I want to supportHendersonCastets and the NPF in the same way as the rope supports a hanged man—that the impending establishment of a government of theHendersonsCastets will prove that I am right, will bring the masses over to my side, and will hasten the political death of theHendersonsCastetses and theSnowdensMélenchons just as was the case with their kindred spirits in Russia and Germany.
…
This has stripped more and more active and engaged and hopeful people of their illusions about bourgeois democracy than even bernie-clinton 2016 nonsense. Which even that created a lot of communists; and that was relatively milquetoast compared to this huge national mobilization and upswell and coalition movement which was big enough to make international headlines no less. If the French communists have been reading their Lenin and agitating on this stuff even before it happened (as you said, very predictable) then the communist movement has gained 10x more than any eurosocialist thinks “the left” lost.
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Mélenchon. Far-left. Come on!
Thank you France for finally putting to bed the myth that western democracy works and the only problem is that people just have to vote harder.
If anything it shows that authoritarians will choose what keeps them in power rather than what’s best for the people. The left didn’t get the majority, it was roughly a 3 way split between the left, center-right and far-right. The government would’ve been with the left and center-right or center-right and far-right. The former would’ve been better because it would’ve represented a bigger portion of the voters but the latter was also viable from the perspective of democracy.
However the choice was largely up to Macron (and his party) and he’s definitely more autocratic than democratic. His decision is what ultimately threw the left under the bus.
Tldr: Democracy is fine, authoritarianism is the issue.
What is shows is that western implementation of the concept of democracy is such that it does not represent the interests of the working majority. Western democracies are class dictatorships where the capital owning class makes the decisions and dictates to the workers. This is precisely what we’re seeing happening in France right now.
Meanwhile, authoritarianism is a largely meaningless term. Every government holds authority by virtue of having a monopoly on legalized violence. What actually matters is whom the government is accountable to. When the working majority has no tangible leverage then their voice can be easily ignored. That’s why Macron is able to do what he is doing. The issue is with the way the system is implemented.
TLDR: democracy is fine, western implementation of the concept is not
What is shows is that western implementation of the concept of democracy is such that it does not represent the interests of the working majority. Western democracies are class dictatorships where the capital owning class makes the decisions and dictates to the workers. This is precisely what we’re seeing happening in France right now.
You want to expand on that? Considering Ensemble and National Rally (with its far right allies) make up 301 seats out of the 577 seats (and for the lazy, 289 is the minimum to have the majority). If Ensemble had allied with NFP they’d have 339 seats which is more than with the far-right, but not significantly more. Had the left “won” I don’t see how you couldn’t make the same argument saying it’s bullshit.
Meanwhile, authoritarianism is a largely meaningless term. Every government holds authority by virtue of having a monopoly on legalized violence. What actually matters is whom the government is accountable to. When the working majority has no tangible leverage then their voice can be easily ignored. That’s why Macron is able to do what he is doing. The issue is with the way the system is implemented.
Define tangible leverage.
TLDR: democracy is fine, western implementation of the concept is not
Interesting to see where this non-western fine democracy exists.
