FRANCE: ACCORDING TO MACRON, THE WINNERS LOSE
FRANCE: ACCORDING TO MACRON, THE WINNERS LOSE
President Emmanuel Macron’s party (the ultraliberal right) suffered a severe defeat in June’s European election.
Oct 1, 2024 | by by Richard Wagman
The night the results came in, Macron took everyone by surprise by announcing the dissolution of the National Assembly, thinking he would reinforce his shrinking majority in parliament. The opposite happened. Once again, his party was severely defeated in the July legislative election, coming in behind the left-wing coalition. The latter, the “New Popular Front” (NFP), won the largest number of seats than any other group in the lower house of parliament. The NFP is an alliance formed by La France Insoumise (radical left), the Ecologists, the Communist Party and the Socialist Party (equivalent of the NDP). Within this coalition, La France Insoumise won the most seats and it constitutes the NFP’s most dynamic component. The coalition’s programme includes revoking Macron’s counter-reform on retirement rights, increasing the minimum wage, restoring unemployment insurance benefits, reinforcing public services, piloting the energy transition to fight climate change and taxing the rich in order to finance all of these measures.
The electoral outcome in favour of the left was mainly due to an exceptional mobilization of voters to defeat the far right, which threatened to take power given its score in the first round of the legislative election. It was an antifascist reflex which defeated Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National in the second round.
The political tradition in France under the current constitution – which was written by General de Gaulle in the 1950s – is that the head of state rapidly nominate a Prime Minister from the party or coalition which obtained the greatest number of seats in the National Assembly. This time around, it’s the left-wing coalition.
So what did Macron do? He took a record 51 days to nominate a Prime Minister… from the right. The winner of this strange game is Michel Barnier, a conservative veteran politician who negotiated the Brexit when he was the Commissioner for the European Union’s Internal Market. His party only came in fifth in the second round of the legislative election with less than 7% of the popular vote. What’s worse is that the government he laboriously put together is composed of a number of controversial reactionary figures. Some observers say it’s the most right-wing government in more than 60 years. Michel Barnier himself is on record opposing abortion rights and homosexual marriages.
As expected, this flagrant disregard of election results gave rise to immediate protests in the National Assembly, in the press, in the trade-union movement and in the streets. Massive demonstrations have already taken place throughout France on September 7 and 21, bringing together hundreds of thousands of protesters. Strike action erupted in numerous sectors, even before Barnier announced the composition of his government. Other demonstrations are called for September 28 and especially October 1st. The latter date corresponds to the scheduled presentation of Barnier’s political agenda in the National Assembly. La France Insoumise has already announced its intention to deposit a motion of non confidence against Barnier and Macron, calling for their resignation. Both these politicians incarnate arrogant denial of election results.
For October 1st, the NFP and the trade-unions are organizing mobilizations with strikes and demonstrations throughout the country. The revocation of Macron’s anti-social law on retirement rights is a priority for the trade-union leadership, united for this national mobilization. But the question of wages, job creation and public services are also high on the agenda, not to mention Macron’s shocking assault on democratic rights. Even if parliamentary institutions aren’t our cup of tea, Macron’s refusal to recognize his defeat in the ballot box opens the door a little wider to the far right. It aggravates growing rejection of any political involvement for a lot of workers, as their vote was ignored. Labour, the political left and the antifascist movement are more than ever united in their fight against Macron’s constitutional coup d’Etat.