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"Expressing one's vote will be useless as long as Macron is in power," said one demonstrator.
In cities and towns across France on Saturday, more than 100,000 people answered the call from the left-wing political party La France Insoumise for mass protests against President Emmanuel Macron's selection of a right-wing prime minister.
The demonstrations came two months after the left coalition won more seats than Macron's centrist coalition or the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in the National Assembly and two days after the president announced that Michel Barnier, the right-wing former Brexit negotiator for the European Union, would lead the government.
The selection was made after negotiations between Macron and RN leader Marine Le Pen, leading protesters on Saturday to accuse the president of a "denial of democracy."
"Expressing one's vote will be useless as long as Macron is in power," a protester named Manon Bonijol toldAl Jazeera.
A poll released on Friday by Elabe showed that 74% of French people believed Macron had disregarded the results of July's snap parliamentary elections, and 55% said the election had been "stolen."
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of La France Insoumise (LFI), or France Unbowed, also accused Macron of "stealing the election" in a speech at the demonstration in Paris on Saturday.
"Democracy is not just the art of accepting you have won but the humility to accept you have lost," Mélenchon told protesters. "I call you for what will be a long battle."
He added that "the French people are in rebellion. They have entered into revolution."
Macron's centrist coalition won about 160 assembly seats out of 577 in July, compared to the left coalition's 180. The RN won about 140.
Barnier's Les Républicains (LR) party won fewer than 50 parliamentary seats. French presidents have generally named prime ministers, who oversee domestic policy, from the party with the most seats in the National Assembly.
Barnier signaled on Friday that he would largely defend Macron's pro-business policies and could unveil stricter anti-immigration reforms. Macron has enraged French workers and the left with policies including a retirement age hike last year.
Protests also took place in cities including Nantes, Nice, Montpellier, Marseilles, and Strasbourg.
All four left-wing parties within the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) coalition have announced plans to vote for a motion of no confidence against Barnier.
The RN has not committed to backing Barnier's government yet and leaders have said they are waiting to see what policies he presents to the National Assembly before deciding how to proceed in a no confidence vote.
The president drew criticism for rejecting the candidate put up by the left-of-center coalition that won the most seats in parliamentary elections.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday named the right-wing politician Michel Barnier as prime minister, prompting outrage from a coalition of left-of-center parties that won the most seats in recent parliamentary elections and argued that the premier should be chosen from its ranks.
The decision marks the end of an unprecedented period in which France hasn't had an active government following the final round of parliamentary elections on July 7 and the previous prime minister's resignation on July 16.
The election ended with the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP), the left coalition, winning a plurality of seats at 32.6%, Macron's own Ensemble coalition of centrist neoliberals winning 27.9%, and the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) winning 24.6%. NFP and Ensemble coordinated their efforts in the final round, forming a "republican front" to block the RN—a successful effort that drew praise from left and centrist figures across the world.
Barnier's center-right party, Les Républicains (LR), once a powerful force in France, gained only 8.3% of the seats, yet emerged victorious in the prime ministerial sweepstakes following Macron's negotiations with RN leader Marine Le Pen, who's thought to have agreed to Barnier's appointment. Without RN's support, Barnier could be ousted by a no-confidence vote in parliament.
In late August, Macron rejected the NFP's proposed prime minister, Lucie Castets, a little-known civil servant and economist whose nomination was itself a compromise reached by the parties within the NFP, which include the center-left Parti Socialiste (PS), the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI), and Les Écologistes, a green party.
Les Écologistes on Thursday condemned Macron's choice, saying he was "obsessed with the preservation of his neoliberal record" and he'd aligned with the far-right.
"By appointing Mr. Barnier, who did not call for a republican blockade and whose positions on immigration resonate with those of the RN, to [Hôtel Matignon, the prime minister's residence], Emmanuel Macron is turning his back on the millions of citizens who have created a historic republican blockade in France," the party said in a statement.
🔴⚡ Un accord a été trouvé entre le président de la République, LR et le RN sur la nomination de @MichelBarnier | Il ne manquait plus que l'accord de Marine Le Pen, le RN confirme ne pas censurer un gouvernement #Barnier. pic.twitter.com/rKlaeE1n1n
— Nouveau Front Populaire 🟢🔴🟡🟣🔴 (ex NUPES News) (@NupesNews) September 5, 2024
Normally, the French president names a prime minister within days of an election for the National Assembly, as the directly-elected house of Parliament is called. However, with no party gaining a majority, and Macron opposed to the NFP—the coalition had run on a platform of rolling back his anti-worker agenda—the negotiations dragged on, especially once the president announced an interlude for the Olympics.
In the French system, the president chooses the prime minister, who has power over governmental ministries, but a majority of the National Assembly must approve of the choice or the deputies, as members of parliament are known, can issue a vote of no confidence. Not since the Fifth Republic formed with constitutional reform in 1958 has the country gone so long without a prime minister.
Barnier, 73, was first elected to the National Assembly in 1978 and worked his way up, serving various key ministerial posts in the 1990s and 2000s under center-right Presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy. From 2016 until 2021, he served as the European Union's chief Brexit negotiator.
Barnier was generally regarded as a centrist conservative but moved to the right in 2021, speaking harshly about immigration as he prepared a 2022 presidential run. The effort failed: He didn't receive his party's nomination.
Le Pen emerged in recent days as the "kingmaker" in the prime minister negotiations, according toLe Monde. With the backing of Ensemble and the RN, Barnier will be able to hold on to the job, as together the two blocs have more than 50% of the seats in the National Assembly.
Le Pen indicated at least a modicum of support for Barnier on Thursday, saying that he is "someone who is respectful of the different political forces and capable of addressing the RN."
Castets, on the other hand, said she was "very worried" about Barnier's appointment and called him "reactionary."
"Michel Barnier is the continuation of Macron's policy, or even worse," Castets toldMediapart.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, standard-bearer of the French left and leader of the LFI, the NFP party holding the most seats, also decried the choice, pointing out that Barnier's party did poorly in the election and hadn't been part of the republican front. He said the "election has been stolen."
Mélenchon has led an effort to impeach Macron for his refusal to name an NFP prime minister but experts say it has little chance of succeeding. Mélenchon's allies are holding a rally on Saturday to call for the ouster of both Macron and Barnier.
Fabien Roussel, the leader of a Communist party that's a smaller member of the NFP, called Macron's move "a middle finger to the French who aspire to change," roughly translated, in a social media post.
The PS, which includes such figures as former President François Hollande and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, hasn't joined the impeachment call but was critical of Macron's process. Olivier Faure, the party's leader, called it an affront to democracy.
"Democratic denial at its peak: a Prime Minister from the party that came in 4th place and who did not even participate in the republican front," Faure said. "We're entering a crisis of regime."
The transfer of power to Barnier was set for 6 pm local time at Hôtel Matignon on Thursday.
"We must create effective and humane pathways for those seeking refuge to reduce the need for dangerous crossings and prevent further tragedies."
A small boat carrying migrants in the English Channel sank off the coast of France on Tuesday, leading to at least 12 deaths, mostly of women and girls.
Ten of the dead were female, one of whom was pregnant, and six were minors; they were of "primarily of Eritrean origin," a French prosecutor told reporters, according toThe Guardian. The boat, which was about 23 feet long, was carrying roughly 70 passengers when the bottom collapsed. Most of them were rescued, and at least two people are in critical condition.
The overcrowded boat was bound for England but didn't make it far after setting off from the French coast, where migrants from war-torn countries in Africa, the Middle East, and elsewhere tend to gather in makeshift camps as they try to make it to the United Kingdom to claim asylum there. The boat "ripped open" near the Cap Gris-Nez, a cape whose cliffs mark the closest spot in France to England, with Dover just about 20 miles away.
The accident is the latest in a series of migration disasters in the channel in recent years. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party has been in power since July, has declared a crackdown on 'gangs' involved in smuggling, but rights groups in the U.K. on Tuesday called for a broader set of reforms, including safe alternative routes into the country.
"In addition to taking action against the criminal gangs themselves, the [U.K.] government must develop a plan to improve and expand safe routes for those seeking safety," Enver Solomon, chief executive of Refugee Council, said in a statement.
"People risk their lives out of desperation, fleeing violence and persecution in countries like Afghanistan, Syria, and Sudan in search of safety," Solomon said. "We must create effective and humane pathways for those seeking refuge to reduce the need for dangerous crossings and prevent further tragedies."
Amnesty International U.K. refugee and migrant rights director Steve Valdez-Symonds agreed, arguing in a statement that "no amount of 'smash the gangs' policing and government rhetoric is going to stop these disasters from unfolding time and again if the needs of people exploited by those gangs remain unaddressed."
Wanda Wyporska, CEO of Safe Passage, also emphasized the need for safe routes.
"Today's tragedy must be the last," she said in a statement. "Without safe alternatives to reach protection in the U.K., people fleeing war and persecution will continue to make dangerous journeys at the hands of smugglers as they have no other choice. We must not accept this government's refusal to prioritize opening new safe routes."
Roughly 20,000 people have come to England by crossing the channel on small boats this year, according to U.K. government data. More than a dozen have died while trying to cross, including nine since the start of July.
The channel is a busy shipping zone with unpredictable weather, where small boat accidents are common. In November 2021, 27 people died in frigid waters off of Calais, France, after their dinghy deflated, and other such tragedies with smaller death tolls have followed over the last three years.
The Conservative-led U.K. government established a fiercely anti-migrant position and even set up a controversial system to transfer asylum-seekers to Rwanda. Labour abandoned the Rwanda deportation program and directed its antagonism at people smugglers. Progressives have, however, cautioned that overzealous policing of smuggling can led to migration itself being prosecuted.
Rights groups have emphasized that people who take boats to the U.K. overwhelmingly intend to enter a legal asylum process. More than 90% people who've arrived in the U.K. on small boats since 2018 claimed asylum, and of those who had received a decision by March, about 75% were successful, according to a recent analysis by the Migration Observatory at Oxford University.
Many of the people on the small boat crossings are from Eritrea, Afghanistan, Albania, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, and Syria. Eritrea, a country in the Horn of Africa, gained independence from Ethiopia in the early 1990s and has since been plagued by conflict and human rights abuses. The authoritarian government has a mandatory military conscription policy that drives people from the country; the conditions of service are extremely harsh and torture has been alleged.
Only eight of the migrants on board the small boat on Tuesday wore life vests, officials said. Smugglers often use boats that are not seaworthy, as they wouldn't want to lose a valuable asset, and they crowd the boats to maximize their profits.
Following the incident, Gérald Darmanin, France's outgoing interior minister, called for a new migration treaty with the U.K. to create legal pathways for migrants.
French and U.K. governments, largely tilting right on immigration in the last decade, have worked together to limit the flow of people to Britain by, for example, increasing security at the border crossing at Calais. The two countries signed a $576 million deal last year that rights groups called racist and illegal.
Many migrants prefer the U.K. to continental Europe because they have family connections there or because of their language skills, among other reasons.