The political crisis in France
France’s prime minister Michel Barnier
DECEMBER 7, 2024
As Macron appoints his fourth Prime Minister in a year, Andrew Coates explores the background to the deadlock and the challenges facing the left.
With three months in power Michel Barnier, French Prime Minister, outlasted Liz Truss’s 45 days of office. Appointed by President Macron to replace Gabriel Attal, a member of the head of state’s Renaissance Party, the member of the centre right Les Républicains presided over a minority government, supported by MPs (from the classical right and Macronists) holding 212 out of 577 seats.
For some in the British media Barnier is recalled as the European Commission’s chief Brexit negotiator. For many on the French left he is known for his right-wing policies, having appointed as Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau who has called for “less immigration, more security”.
Amongst other figure were Guillaume Kasbarian, the (unwieldly-sounding) Ministre de la Fonction Publique, de la Simplification et de la Transformation de l’Action Publique (Minister of Civil Service, Streamlining and Public Sector Transformation). A member of Macron’s Parliamentary group, Ensemble pour la République, Kasbarien recently welcomed Elon Musk’s plans to tackle ‘bureaucracy’.
There was also Higher Education and Research Minister Patrick Hetzel, of the ‘Republican Right’, who is an enthusiast for ‘alternative medicine’ and has questioned vaccination. In October 2024 Hetzel took part in an event organised by the far right student union, UNI.
These figures confirm that, as widely reported, Barnier was chosen to chosen to be acceptable to parties from the centre, the right and the far right. On 9th October, the Barnier government survived a no-confidence vote brought by the left bloc, the Nouveau Front Populaire, (NFP) which fell 92 votes short of the 289 needed. The far right Rassemblement National (RN) supported the government by not voting for the motion.
This Wednesday the RN voted for a motion of no-confidence proposed by the NFP. It passed 331 to 244. The immediate cause was the finance bill, which was based on an austerity budget. On Monday Barnier had forced through Social Security measures using the constitutional provision of 49.3, designed under the 5th Republic to avoid political deadlock over legislation.
After this result, the largest bloc in the National Assembly, the Nouveau Front Populaire with 193 seats, believes it should govern, though it is far from a majority in the lower house, 577 MPs in all. Macron-backers, such as former PM Gabriel Attal, have, Le Monde reports on 5th December, turned away from the classic right and tried to negotiate with the Socialist Party wing of the NFP. But, “’Mr. Attal must have the lucidity to consider that Macronism has been defeated,’ replied Boris Vallaud, the president of the Socialist group in the Assembly.”
The left faces some challenges maintaining unity. Raphaël Glucksmann, an MEP close to the Socialists who has his own micro-party Place Publique and some allies , have called for a ‘minimum platform’, an agreement between parties that supported the ‘republican front’ (that is composed of many Macron-favourable centrists and some moderate right-wingers) against Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s RN during the Parliamentary elections. Chaos, they warn, threatens. (Le Monde. 5th December)
Strikes and protests in the public sector will take place from Thursday over austerity measures already passed by the Barnier government.
Macron has two years left of his Presidential term. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France Insoumise, by far the largest left force in the National Assembly, though not himself an MP in Parliament, suggests that he will not last the course.
Meanwhile, France’s Socialists have signaled they are ready to hold talks with President Emmanuel Macron over the formation of a new government. Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure told French media today that the party was prepared to play a part in breaking the country’s political deadlock.
Andrew Coates is a European socialist internationalist who lives in East Anglia. He blogs here.
mage: https://www.flickr.com/photos/european_parliament/48753411836 Creator: Gabor Kovacs Licence: Attribution 2.0 Generic CC BY 2.0 Deed
Denis Godard, a socialist in Paris, spoke to Thomas Foster about the collapse of Michel Barnier’s government
France’s Tory prime minister Michel Barnier has lost a vote of no confidence (Picture: European Union 2019/EP Flickr)
Wednesday 04 December 2024
The French government has collapsed after right wing prime minister Michel Barnier lost a vote of no confidence on Wednesday. His downfall has deepened the political crisis facing the French state.
On Monday, Barnier pushed through his social security budget bill for 2025 without a parliamentary vote using the authoritarian Article 49.3 of the French constitution. It sought to deliver £49 billion worth of spending cuts and tax rises, hitting working class people.
The no confidence motion in the National Assembly passed by 331 votes, an overwhelming majority of the 577 MPs.
France’s neoliberal president Emmanuel Macron installed veteran right wing Tory Michel Barnier as prime minister in September. He only held office with the backing of Marine Le Pen’s and Jordan Bardella’s fascist RN.
Elections in July produced a stalemate with three major blocs dominating parliament—the NPF, the RN and Macron’s Ensemble alliance.
The NPF is largest with 193 MPs, but divided between different parties ranging from Jean Luc Melenchon’s left wing LFI to the Labour-type Socialist Party. Macron’s alliance has 166 MPs, the fascist RN and its allies hold 142 seats, while the conservative grouping that Barnier comes from has 47.
Denis Godard, a revolutionary socialist in France, spoke to Socialist Worker about the trigger for the crisis—and where next for the left.
He said, “Since the elections in the summer, you have a parliament based on three equivalent groups with no one having a majority. Barnier’s government was based on an alliance between Macron’s party, the conservatives and the fascists. It was one of the most reactionary governments for dozens of years.
“The government was completely dependent on the support of the fascists, who were playing with the government like a cat plays with a mouse.
“The government made a lot of concessions to the fascists on the budget, showing it’s ready to adapt to some of the politics of the RN.
“Macron is more and more in the process of opening the road to the RN. The government was dealing with RN to decide what it was doing, legitimising RN as the main force in the country.
“But the fascist party is based on the middle classes and so it defends some social security measures while supporting the reactionary politics of racism and nationalism.
“The budget defended by Macron was a very ruling class programme attacking pensions and the majority of the population, even the middle class layers. So there was pressure from the base of the fascists against the alliance with the government.
“The government and Macron are very unpopular—they have no base, no majority and can only rule through decree and force.
“At one moment it looked like the fascists had decided to keep the government alive and endorse the unpopular measures. That’s because the constitution says elections can’t happen within a year of parliament being dissolved and Macron did so in July. But the contradictions were so large they couldn’t keep it alive.”
The crisis poses sharp questions for the French left. In the second round of the French elections, the NPF withdrew its candidates who had come third in the poll and urged a vote for Macron’s allies.
In practice, this meant backing racist and neoliberal candidates such as Elisabeth Borne, one of the authors of the attack on pensions that sparked mass resistance.
The NPF won the most votes, but not a majority in the second round. And Macron—having secured the left’s votes—took the left’s votes and then put the right into office.
Denis argued that the left had to focus on struggles outside of parliament as the way forward. “The left isn’t going to cry about the collapse of the government,” he said. “Rightly, the left fought the politics of the government and the budget.
“But the big weakness of the left is that it only has a parliamentary strategy. The SP and Communist Party said, ‘Maybe we need to make an agreement with Macron against the far right to have a stable government’.
“Melenchon’s LFI will push a more militant strategy, but it will still be oriented around Macron nominating a left prime minister.
“After Macron’s nomination of Barnier as prime minister in September, the door closed to parliamentary manoeuvres as the way forward.
“It opened a space for people from below to say there’s no solution, so we are going to fight. It meant an increase of strikes in a number of sectors over wages, working conditions and job cuts.
“The multiplication of local strikes put pressure on trade unions to call for action. This month different sectors are going on strike nationally.
“On Thursday there is a national strike in public services and education, next Monday and Tuesday there is a national strike for dockers. Next Wednesday rail workers are launching an indefinite strike. Next Thursday there is a strike day in industry.
“Now the general question of who holds power is being raised—for weeks we won’t have any government. We are in an unstable situation, but strikes are a chance for the working class to answer the question.
“The focus won’t be to support parliamentary solutions, but to build working class organisation through strikes and struggle.
“But the fascists are also in a position to take advantage of the situation. Struggle of the streets is important to make it more difficult for Macron to nominate a more right government.
“The movement and strikes must be as big and determined as possible. You have to, as a force, appear stronger than the fascists.
“You have to say the fate of our country won’t be decided in parliament anymore.”
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