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More than 100,000 left-wing supporters have demonstrated across France to protest the appointment of centre-left Michel Barnier as prime minister, and to denounce President Emmanuel Macron’s “seizure” of power.
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The French Interior Ministry said 110,000 people demonstrated across the country, 26,000 of them in the capital, Paris, while the clerical leadership estimated the number of protesters in different parts of France at around 300,000.
Demonstrations took place in cities across France, including Nantes in the west, Nice and Marseille in the south, and Strasbourg in the east.
On Thursday, Macron appointed Barnier (73 years old) as the main negotiator of the European Union during the departure of Britain from the continental bloc, considering that he is able to “bring it together on the widest possible scale” in a fragmented political scene.
Barnier’s appointment ended a projected sixty days after the early elections in which there was no clear majority, and as a result the National Assembly was divided into three blocs: left, center right, and extreme right.
Barnier said on Friday that he was open to nominating ministers from all political persuasions, including “figures from the left.”
But the left-wing “New Popular Front”, which emerged as the largest political bloc in France after the July elections, despite not getting a clear majority of seats in the National Assembly, rejected Macron’s choice.
The Front proposed Lucie Castet, a 37-year-old economist, to take over as prime minister, but Macron rejected the idea, arguing that she would not gain the confidence of the deeply divided National Assembly.
2024-09-10 20:33:16