Macron under pressure to appoint a new prime minister - In a speech he made it clear that he is not resigning

Emmanuel Macron is trying to regain the initiative of the movements and stop any talk about his resignation from the highest office of France.

In his speech last night, after the fall of Michel Barnier's government, Macron pledged to appoint a new prime minister in the coming days with a mandate to form a "government of national interest".

French media reports that Macron would like to have chosen Barnier's successor at the Matignon palace before Saturday, that is before the festive reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral in the presence of US President-elect Donald Trump and many other foreign leaders and dignitaries. . The French president has already started the relevant consultations.

Macron: "I'm not resigning" - Fire on the far right and the left

Macron, after what turned out to be the wrong decision to call early parliamentary elections in the summer, denied responsibility for the political crisis. Instead, he accused the extreme right and the left of joining an "anti-democratic front" in order to cause chaos by ousting Barnier.

With the rapid selection of France's new prime minister, Macron wants to get out of the firing line, as the fall of the Barnier government with a vote of no confidence on Wednesday night significantly increased the pressure on the occupant of the Elysée. The left-wing "Insubordinate France" of the former Trotskyist Jean-Luc Mélenchon demanded the resignation of the president - which 54% of the French also want - which Macron explicitly ruled out in his speech yesterday, stressing that he will finish his term until 2027. “The mandate you gave me is for five years and I will fulfill it to the end he said" in his ten-minute speech.

He added that the new government should represent various parties willing to join it or at least agree not to topple it, but did not name them.

Bairou in the squad for Matignon

After Barnier's resignation and before his speech, Macron had a working lunch with his ally Francois Bairroux, who has some channels of communication with Le Pen.

The 73-year-old centrist leader of the "Democratic Movement" (MoDem), mayor of the southwestern French city of Pau, was a three-time presidential candidate, but in 2017 sided with Macron, who, after his election, appointed him justice minister. Bayrou resigned a few weeks later amid an investigation into his party's parliamentary aides, but was acquitted last February and has been shortlisted by the French media as a possible successor to Barnier. Bayrou had spoken out in November against depriving Le Pen of the right to stand for election as recommended by prosecutors in her trial in Paris for embezzlement of community funds, while he has also spoken out in favor of a more proportional electoral system, as the far-right wants.

The budget is a priority

In view of the threatened problems for the French economy, Macron emphasized that the priority of the new government is the rapid preparation of the budget for 2025. In the first phase, the French president announced a special law, which will ensure the smooth operation of the state until the budget is passed for next year.

It remains unknown how much leeway the new government will have for the necessary austerity measures, since this was also the reason for the fall of the Barnier government.

But the composition of the new cabinet also remains unclear, as the correlation of political forces after July's early elections is complicated with the National Assembly divided into three almost equal camps, as neither Macron's centrist faction, nor the left-wing New People's Alliance On the front, not even Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally and their allies have enough seats for self-reliance and government coalitions are not common in France.

Macron, however, again demanded from the political forces a willingness to compromise in order to start a new era hence the call to the members of the National Assembly to cooperate.

Macron also expressed hope that France's next government would be more stable than that of Barnier, who was forced out after less than three months. There are still 30 months left until the end of his term. "30 months for the government to act".

Source: iefimerida.gr