PARIS, 7 Sep: Thousands of protesters took to the streets across France on Saturday, responding to a call from a far-left party leader who criticized as a power grab the president\u2019s appointment of a conservative new prime minister, Michel Barnier.
\nThe protests are a direct challenge to President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s decision to bypass a prime minister from the far-left bloc following a deeply dividing legislative election in July. The left, particularly the France Unbowed party, views Barnier\u2019s conservative background as rejecting the electorate\u2019s will, further intensifying the EU\u2019s second economy\u2019s already charged political atmosphere.
\nAuthorities expected tens of thousands of demonstrators. In Paris, protesters gathered at Place de la Bastille and tensions ran high as police prepared for potential clashes. Other rallies in 150 points nationwide include the southwestern cities of Montauban and Auch.
\nIn Montauban, the demonstrators denounced Barnier\u2019s appointment as denying democracy, echoing France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon\u2019s fiery rhetoric from recent days. \u201cThe people have been ignored,\u201d a rally speaker told the crowd.
\nWhile Barnier was meeting with health care workers at Paris\u2019 Necker Hospital for his first official visit as prime minister, opponents say the unrest in the streets is shaping his government\u2019s future.
\nBarnier, who is working to assemble his Cabinet, expressed a commitment to listening to public concerns, particularly about France\u2019s public services.
\nJordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally (RN), warned that Barnier was \u201cunder surveillance\u201d by his party as well. Bardella, speaking at the Chalons-en-Champagne fair, called for the prime minister to include his party\u2019s priorities in his agenda, particularly regarding national security and immigration.
\nBarnier, 73, is the oldest of the 26 prime ministers that have served modern France\u2019s Fifth Republic. He replaces the youngest, Gabriel Attal, who was 34 when he was appointed just eight months ago.
\nAttal was forced to resign after Macron\u2019s centrist government suffered a major defeat in the July snap legislative elections. Macron called the election in the hopes of securing a clear mandate, but it instead produced a hung parliament, leaving the president without a legislative majority and plunging his administration into turmoil.
\nAttal was also France\u2019s first openly gay prime minister. French media and some of Macron\u2019s opponents, who immediately criticized Barnier\u2019s appointment, quickly dug up that, when serving in parliament in 1981, the new prime minister had been among 155 lawmakers who voted against a law that decriminalized homosexuality.
\nThough Barnier brings five decades of political experience, his appointment offers no guarantee of resolving the crisis. His challenge is immense: He must form a government that can navigate a fractured National Assembly, where the political spectrum is deeply divided between the far left, far right, and Macron\u2019s weakened centrist bloc. The outcome of the snap poll, far from providing clarity, has only served to destabilize both the country and Macron\u2019s grip on power.
\nThe president\u2019s decision to turn to Barnier, a seasoned political operator with deep ties to the European Union, is seen as an attempt to bring stability to French politics. And Barnier, who gained prominence as the EU\u2019s chief Brexit negotiator, has faced daunting tasks before.
\nCritics say Macron, elected on the promise of a break from the old political order, now finds himself battling the instability he once promised to overcome. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS, 7 Sep: Thousands of protesters took to the streets across France on Saturday, responding to a call from a far-left party leader who criticized as a power grab the president\u2019s appointment of a conservative new prime minister, Michel Barnier. The protests are a direct challenge to President Emmanuel Macron\u2019s decision to bypass a prime […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-248041","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248041\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}