More than 100,000 demonstrators on Saturday rallied across France to protest against the nomination of the center-right Michel Barnier as prime minister and denounce French President Emmanuel Macron’s “power grab.”
The French Ministry of the Interior said 110,000 people took to the streets nationwide, including 26,000 in Paris, while protest organizers said about 300,000 turned out.
Rallies took place in Nantes in the west, Nice and Marseille in the south and Strasbourg in the east.
Photo: AFP
Macron on Thursday appointed Barnier, a 73-year-old former foreign minister who acted as the EU’s Brexit negotiator, as prime minister, seeking to move forward after snap elections in which his centrist alliance came second.
Barnier on Friday said that he was open to naming ministers of all political stripes, including “people from the left.”
A left-wing coalition, which emerged as France’s largest political bloc after the June-July elections, although short of an overall majority, has denounced Macron’s appointment of Barnier.
The alliance wanted Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist, to become prime minister, but Macron quashed that idea, saying that she would not survive a confidence vote in the hung parliament.
On Saturday, many demonstrators directed their anger at Macron, 46, and some called on him to resign.
“The Fifth Republic is collapsing,” 21-year-old protester Manon Bonijol said, referring to France’s current system of government.
“Expressing one’s vote will be useless as long as Macron is in power,” she added.
Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, whose France Unbowed party and allies belong to the left-wing bloc, had called for people to take to the streets, saying that the election had been “stolen from the French.”
“Democracy isn’t just the art of accepting that you’ve won, it’s also the humility of accepting that you’ve lost,” Melenchon said at the Paris march.
Project manager Alexandra Germain, 44, accused Macron of riding roughshod over the wishes of voters.
“Demonstrating is my only way of saying that I don’t agree, even if I am well aware that it is useless,” Germain said.
Abel Couaillier, a 20-year-old student, said he was stunned by the appointment of Barnier, whom he called an “old elephant.”
“I am still young, I want to believe that we can change things,” Couaillier added.
Meanwhile, 52 percent of respondents in an IFOP poll for the Journal du Dimanche released yesterday said they were satisfied with the appointment.
By comparison, 53 percent of respondents approved the nomination of Barnier’s predecessor, Gabriel Attal, when he was appointed prime minister in early January, becoming France’s youngest-ever prime minister at 34.
A majority of respondents see Barnier, the oldest prime minister in the history of modern France, as competent (62 percent), open to dialogue (61 percent) and likeable (60 percent).
However, 74 percent of respondents said they believe he would not last long in the post.
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