Republican front sidelined: Barnier govt 'can only exist with implicit support of far-right Le Pen'

1 year ago

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00:00We're moving here to France, where we haven't had a government since July, but that may

00:05finally be changing.

00:07Prime Minister Michel Barnier has submitted his proposed cabinet to President Emmanuel

00:12Macron, and confirmation is expected this weekend.

00:16Now the full list of 38 names hasn't been made public, but both the left wing and the

00:21far right are already mad about it.

00:24Laurent Bersteker looks at some of the new faces being proposed.

00:31After two months of political deadlock, France could be edging towards a new government.

00:37Prime Minister Michel Barnier submitted his list for a new cabinet to Emmanuel Macron

00:41on Thursday, with some names already filtering through.

00:45These include Conservative Senate leader Bruno Retailleau, touted for the Interior Ministry.

00:51A nomination that would mark a shift to the right, but not enough to satisfy the far right

00:56national rally.

00:59Between him and his predecessor, Mr Darmanin, there's not much difference.

01:03They're the same, they have the same political affiliation and ideas.

01:07The same failures as well.

01:11France has been unable to form a government since July's snap elections saw a left wing

01:16coalition win the largest number of seats in parliament.

01:19But without a working majority, and plagued by internal disputes, the left has been unable

01:24to build on these electoral gains.

01:26Last month, Macron rejected its pick for prime minister, nominating former Brexit negotiator

01:31Michel Barnier instead.

01:33A move widely criticized by socialist MPs, yet some remained quietly hopeful the new

01:39cabinet would reflect the will of the French people expressed in the July polls.

01:47We don't have a choice but to stay optimistic, and we can only hope that of all of the cabinets

01:52we've seen under Mr Macron, the last one will be the best.

01:59Other possible nominations include centrist Jean-Noël Barrault for foreign minister,

02:04and Sébastien Lecornu staying on as defence minister.

02:08The full make-up of the new cabinet should be unveiled by Sunday.

02:13For some analysis of this story, we welcome Renaud Foucault to the program.

02:17He is an economist and a senior lecturer at Lancaster University.

02:22Thanks so much for being with us here on France 24 today.

02:25Now our viewers may recall that it was a left wing coalition that earned the most seats

02:31in parliament back in the July snap elections, so not a majority.

02:35However, Barnier's proposed cabinet seems to tilt further to the right than the previous

02:41more centrist government.

02:42So how is Macron justifying this based on what voters decided?

02:47So the truth of the second round of the election of July the 7th is that it was neither the

02:52left or the centre who won the election, it was a republican front.

02:56The left wing candidate withdrew candidates to help centrists be elected, centrists withdrew

03:01candidates to see left wing people being elected, and in the end they were the people who had

03:06the legitimacy to get out the centre and the left to form a government.

03:11In practice, it became impossible.

03:13So on the left, they would say it's because Macron refused to nominate Lucie Castex, who

03:18was the prime minister advanced by the left.

03:21Emmanuel Macron and people around him would say that the left refused to compromise.

03:25But as a matter of fact, the only majority that became available was this strange majority

03:31at the moment in which it will be a right wing prime minister.

03:34And despite all the pantomime of saying, oh, this is not a true right wing government,

03:39this is a government that can only exist with the implicit support of Marine Le Pen

03:43and the far right.

03:44So this is indeed not the result of the election.

03:47The blame game, the jury is still out.

03:50So now that the cabinet has been proposed, what's the opposition saying?

03:54And is there anything that they could do to try to stop this government?

03:59The left wing opposition at the moment, they cannot do anything.

04:02The only thing they can hope for is that at some point Marine Le Pen decides to pull the

04:06plug on the government.

04:08So Le Pen has said, we will not vote against the government as a matter of principle at

04:13the beginning, but we reserve the possibility of doing so.

04:16She is in an incredibly comfortable position, though.

04:19She can complain as much as she wants when there will be budget cuts and things like

04:23that.

04:24But she will wait for the moment when it's the most promising, the most useful for her

04:28politically to pull the plug.

04:29And then maybe if it happens in a year, there will be another chance to form something with

04:34the left.

04:35But in the meantime, the left is completely out of the game.

04:38They can only do what French politicians like to do the most, which is to get ready for

04:41the next presidential election.

04:42And in that sense, it's a bit of a victory for some of them because they will remain

04:46sort of pure.

04:47They will not be accountable for the coming tax raise and budget cuts.

04:51Right.

04:52Well, that brings me to my next question, because, well, we know some of the names that

04:56Barnier has proposed.

04:58There doesn't appear to be any big political names in the mix, like Gérald Darmanin, for

05:03example.

05:05You mentioned the upcoming presidential election.

05:08Is that why you think that these bigger names aren't included or are there other reasons

05:13as well?

05:14Well, definitely the frontrunner for the traditional right, Les Républicains, Laurent Wauquiez,

05:20was offered to be minister of finance.

05:23Of course, it's a super prestigious job.

05:25But I guess in his mind, he thought, no, the only job someone from the right would like

05:28to do right now is interior, because interior, I can take a picture with policemen, I can

05:33show I'm tough on crime, tough on migration.

05:35This will maybe help me with voters.

05:37At the moment, all the other jobs are jobs of austerity.

05:40France, the main challenge of France right now, is to go back in an horizon of three

05:45to five years below 3 percent of GDP of deficit.

05:49This is a very tough job.

05:51This might include new tax, budget cuts for sure.

05:54And I don't think anyone wants to be the face of austerity, except for somebody like Michel

05:59Barnier, who is an old man without too much agenda for his political future, and who has

06:04this reputation in Europe of being someone who can make deals.

06:08A lot of political calculations going on here.

06:12So finally, I want to ask, you know, while we're watching the clock, waiting for news

06:16to come down about the confirmation, do we know what the holdup is, what we're waiting

06:21to happen?

06:24What we're waiting to happen?

06:25Well, at the moment, there is one thing that was added by François Hollande in his previous

06:29presidency, which is a moment of background checks on ministers.

06:32This happened because in the past, some ministers were found to have some big financial or fiscal

06:38problems.

06:39So that's one of the reasons.

06:40And I think there is also another reason, which is, again, this political game, like

06:43who in the centrist is really willing to go and put their name in the hat.

06:48From what I hear, there are some people around the Modem and Horizon, which is the party

06:53of Edouard Philippe, who is another presidential hopeful, who are still waiting to see.

06:58Because in the end, the big surprise of the week was that Michel Barnier, according to

07:02some polls, is the most popular political figure in France at the moment.

07:06So it's not impossible that actually people like him.

07:08And in that case, a lot of people will regret not joining the vote right now.

07:13Economist Renaud Foucault, thank you so much for joining us and breaking down this story

07:16in a very clear way.

07:17I appreciate it.

Republican front sidelined: Barnier govt 'can only exist with implicit support of far-right Le Pen'

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