Far-right holds power over Barnier government’s survival
Despite coming third in the snap legislative elections on 7 July, the far-right Rassemblement national (RN) holds new French Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s fate in its hands and could decide at any moment to bring down the future government.
With 143 MPs out of the 577 in the National Assembly, and with the left declaring it would not support a right-wing candidate, the RN and its allies sit as kingmakers as Barnier looks to form a coaltion government.
A few minutes after the Élysée announced the appointment of the former Brexit negotiator as Prime Minister on Thursday (5 September), the president of the RN, Jordan Bardella, explained on X that the new government’s actions and budgetary decisions would be judged “on their merits.”
Marine Le Pen confirmed that Barnier “seems to meet at least the first criterion we asked for, i.e. someone who is respectful of the different political forces,” implying that her party would not immediately act to topple him.
But the chairwoman of the RN group in the National Assembly explained that her movement “will not participate” in the government, criticising the “chaos” in which France finds itself under Macron.
RN vice-president Sébastien Chenu also laid down an early marker against which his party would assess a Barnier-led government.
“More purchasing power, control of immigration, the fight against growing insecurity and the necessary overhaul of the electoral system to ensure better representation of the French people,” Chenu posted on X.
Marion Maréchal, Le Pen’s niece who sits as an independent MEP within the ECR group, called on Barnier to honour the more hard-right commitments he had made during the Republican primary before the 2022 presidential election, including facilitating the expulsion of illegal immigrants and asylum policy reform.
“Institutional stability” nowhere to be found
For weeks, President Emmanuel Macron has repeated that his main objective was to ensure the country’s “institutional stability.”
He first ruled out Lucie Castets, the candidate backed by the left-wing alliance Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP), from the race for the post of Prime Minister. Former socialist prime minister Bernard Cazenueve and The Republicans’ (LR) Xavier Bertrand were also floated before eventually being passed over.
Michel Barnier’s strong right-wing credentials could perhaps enable the government to hold out for a few weeks, while it puts together the state budget for 2025, due to be presented to MPs in the National Assembly on 1 October.
But Barnier’s detractors on the left have already voiced opposition to any new government seen to be colluding with the far-right.
“There is almost certainty” that if Michel Barnier was able to be appointed by President Macron, “it is because the RN, precisely the far right, gave a form of approval”, former socialist president François Hollande said on Thursday, according to Le Monde.
A few days ago, the far-left La France Insoumise movement (LFI) called for a major demonstration “against Emmanuel Macron’s coup de force” and the “authoritarian drift” of his administration.
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