France: The new prime minister faces a "mission impossible"

Kryeministri i ri i emëruar nga presidenti Emmanuel Macron ka përpara një detyrë thuajse të pamundur: I rrethuar nga parti në grindje atij i duhet të farkëtojë një koalicion të qëndrueshëm qeveritar.

2024-12-14 13:43:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Nine days after the fall of the Barnier government, France now has a new prime minister. He is François Bayrou, who leads a small center party and is considered a close confidant of President Emmanuel Macron. Bayrou must now take care of stable political relations. But the party landscape in France is divided.

The government he must form must no longer depend on the tolerance of the right-wing radicals of the Rassemblement National. For this, Bayrou, who leads the small center party Mouvement démocrate, needs cooperation with the moderate left. This is not an easy task: Asked by journalists about this, he emphasized: "Everyone knows how difficult it is to find a way to unite and not divide." Reconciliation is necessary.

France: The new prime minister faces a "mission impossible"

Skepticism of the left

Only if Bayrou succeeds in attracting moderate leftists, i.e. socialists, environmentalists or communists, into the coalition, can he face a possible vote of no confidence from the far-left LFI and the far-right Rassemblement National. But in the meantime, the socialists have communicated that they are not ready to enter co-government under the leadership of Francois Bayrou. By appointing Bayrou, Macron again ignored the result of the election on July 7, 2024, in which the leftist NFP alliance received the majority of votes. Macron would therefore have to appoint a prime minister from the left. Instead, writes party leader Olivier Faure, Macron is deepening the democratic crisis.

Even Marine Tondelier from the ecologists is skeptical. She threatened to tolerate Bayrous's new government only if he accepted parts of the environmentalists' program. But it is not only in the direction of the left that Bayrou should make way, drew the attention of the leader of the communist party, Fabien Roussel. According to him, the prime minister should no longer use the special article 49.3. This article allows laws to be approved even without the final approval of the National Assembly. "Only if Bayrou guarantees that he will not use Article 49.3, everyone will be forced to compromise." Only in this case can the vote of abstention be avoided, Roussel emphasized.

France: The new prime minister faces a "mission impossible"

National Rassemblement pending

The president of Rassemblement National, Jordan Bardella, stated that he will wait first. It does not automatically target a vote of no confidence against Bayrou's government. But Bardella also sets the red lines: No increase in taxes for businesses and people with low or medium income, no cuts in pensions. "Emmanuel Macron is a president who has bunkered himself," declared Bardella. The new prime minister must be clear that there is no democratic legitimacy and no parliamentary majority. "He must be open to all parties and to voters." Marine Le Pen writes in X, Bayrou must do what his predecessor Barnier did not want to do. "To listen to the opposition and understand it, to conceive a reasonable and well-thought-out budget."

The 73-year-old Bayrou must therefore manage to make an offer to the leftists in a deeply divided political landscape, without undermining the conservative Republicans. This is the only way to create a government alliance./ DW