Emmannuel Macron’s new government is facing a no-confidence vote just 12 hours after the cabinet was unveiled.
Michel Barnier, France’s Prime Minister, finally announced his new centre-right administration on Saturday – 11 weeks after Macron called a snap election.
Barnier, 73, has given posts such as interior and finance minister to mainstream conservatives and Macron allies, which has prompted outrage from opposition parties.
The new cabinet is composed of Macron’s centre-right Renaissance party and Barnier’s right-wing The Republicans party, along with two other centre-right parties.
The new cabinet is composed of Macron’s centre-right Renaissance party and Barnier’s right-wing The Republicans party, along with two other centre-right parties
Reuters
French Prime Minister Michel Barnier arrives to attend a meeting with the newly-named French government
Reuters
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the radical Left party France Unbowed (LFI), compared the cabinet makeup to a cast of a “disaster movie” that the country has seen before.
“We need to get rid of it as soon as possible,” he said on X.
Hard-right politicians have also criticised the new administration, calling it the “same-old, same-old”.
Jordan Bardella, leader of the hard-Right National Rally (RN), said: “This ‘new’ government signals the return of Macronism through the back door,” Mr Bardella said.
A cut-out depicting French President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Michel Barnier is pictured during a demonstration
Reuters
“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.”
Hours before the vote was announced, thousands of left-wing individuals who anticipated the right-wing shift of the government, took to the streets to protest.
They called it a failure of leadership and said that the lineup made a joke of the election process, stating that French voters had been betrayed.
The new announcement comes after Macron called for a snap election in June, following Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally party’s success in the European Parliament elections.
The following month, the leftist coalition of the the New Popular Front (NFP) won the most seats, though it failed to secure an overall majority which resulted in a hung parliament.
