Thousands of leftists took to the streets of France Saturday over President Emmanuel Macron’s installation of centrist Michelle Barnier as prime minister.
Protesters poured through Paris and cities across France to back the leftist New Popular Front (NFP), a coalition of social democrats, greens and communists, which with the help from President Macron won the most seats in last month’s legislative elections, despite not winning the most votes, with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally gaining millions more votes than the NFP.
The protests were called for after Macron appointed centre-right Michel Barnier, who previously served as the EU’s Brexit negotiator, as his new prime minister, enraging the far-left, who accused the president of a “coup” and of going against democracy.
Despite claiming the mantle of democratic legitimacy, the New Popular Front had demanded that Macron install Lucie Castets as his next prime minister, a deep state bureaucrat and socialist economist who did not stand in the election.
“If we didn’t get Lucie Castets from the authorities, we will get Lucie Castets from the street,” a student protester said in Marseilles according to Le Figaro. “We are coming to march against Emmanuel Macron’s coup. Today, Emmanuel Macron is trampling on the democratic result and the demands of the students.”
In Paris, the protesters were joined by former presidential candidate and leader of the far-left La France Insoumise party Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who vowed that his supporters in the National Assembly would vote to take down the new Barnier government.
“Emmanuel Macron could have named Lucie Castets prime minister. He didn’t… Because we intended to carry out our program… You guys are used to cheating! Not us! Whatever happens, we will vote to censure such a government,” Mélenchon declared.
According to organisers, some 160,000 joined the demonstration in Paris on Saturday.
Barnier also faces pressure from the right, with the populist National Rally (RN) party vowing to act as a “referee” against the new technocratic government after having been blocked from taking control of the National Assembly by a strategic voting alliance between Macron and the New Popular Front in July’s elections.
RN president Jordan Bardella said that Barnier will be a “prime minister under surveillance,” adding: “Michel Barnier will have to integrate the subjects of the National Rally into his action.”
“From now on, nothing can be done without us. And despite the unnatural alliance of the legislative elections [against us], nothing can be done in politics against us or without [our] approval,” Bardella continued.
In his first public appearance, visiting the Necker hospital in Paris, Barnier rejected the notion that his installation in Matignon represented a coup, saying “that’s not the spirit. The idea is to come together, in cooperation.”
“I had contacts with officials, elected officials on the left. I will see all the political groups, including those who put up automatic and prior opposition before even knowing the government’s project.”
