Thousands of angry leftwing protesters took to French streets on Saturday two days after Emmanuel Macron appointed a conservative prime minister, reports The Guardian.
Demonstrators accused the president of a “denial of democracy” after his decision to name the former EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, 73, as leader of the government.
The appointment came two months after a snap general election left France with a hung parliament formed of three roughly equal blocs – the New Popular Front (NFP), a leftwing alliance; the centre, including Macron’s Renaissance party and the centre-right; and the far-right National Rally (RN) – none of which had a majority.
The mass protests had been called by the NFP’s dominant group, France Unbowed (LFI), and appeared to have widespread support on Saturday despite being shunned by some of its alliance partners and the country’s unions.
Barnier, a veteran politician and member of Les Républicains (LR), whose party emerged from the election with fewer than 50 MPs – the fourth largest block in the National Assembly – has yet to choose his ministers, but has said he is prepared to include representatives of the NFP, which emerged with the most MPs in the July election.
Before he was named, the NFP had threatened to lodge a motion of no confidence in any government if its chosen candidate, the 37-year-old civil servant Lucie Castets, was not named PM. The RN warned it would lodge a similar motion if she was.
“Democracy is not just the art of accepting you have won but the humility to accept you have lost,” Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the LFI leader, told the Paris demonstration on Saturday in a dig at Macron. He accused the president of “stealing the election”.
“I call you for what will be a long battle,” he urged protesters.