MARSEILLE, France (CN) — On Friday, the new prime minister of France met with members of the right-wing Les Républicains group to begin forming the country’s next government — a move that left many pondering how Michel Barnier ended up in power in the first place.
If the left-wing New Popular Front coalition won the most seats in France’s snap elections, but Macron is charging forward with a right-wing government, what was the point?
“It’s the refusal of Emmanuel Macron to really understand what’s driving the French people today,” Pascaline Lécorché, a Marseille-based politician and candidate for the New Popular Front, told Courthouse News. “So it’s infuriating, because it’s denial.”
Lécorché was having lunch at work when the news came out on Thursday.
“I saw that it was this person that would become prime minister,” she said. “This person that doesn’t represent a renewal at all — beyond not coming from the ranks of the left, we all know who this really person is.”
When Macron announced the dissolution of France’s government on June 9, as the extreme-right National Rally gained serious momentum in the European elections, France braced itself for the real possibility that the extreme right would lead the country for the first time in its modern history.
The left coming out on top was a veritable plot twist. So Macron’s decision to appoint a right-wing prime minister has many people questioning whether snap elections are futile.
Macron has long been criticized as being autocratic. He’s frequently compared to French monarchs. The critique has become especially pervasive in the past week — online and on the streets.
In a medical center in Marseille, one doctor said she didn’t understand why elections were held at all if Macron would just impose his choice of prime minister regardless of the outcome. She muttered under her breath that it’s certainly an interesting model for democracy, while widening her eyes and shaking her head.
Earlier this week, during an informal conversation, a shopkeeper in a residential neighborhood of the city said similarly that Macron was essentially flexing his egotism. Since the beginning of his presidency, a recurring criticism has been that Macron thinks he’s smarter than everyone and tries to outwit the general public. This situation, in her view, exemplified that.
Others argue the decision to appoint Barnier was simply a numbers game. Although the New Popular Front won the most seats with 188 — with Macron’s centrist alliance following at 161, and the National Rally in third at 142 — the party was far from winning an absolute majority.
Macron has the constitutional right to appoint anyone as prime minister, and isn’t tied to choosing someone from the winning party’s ranks.
Luc Rouban, a senior research fellow at Sciences Po Paris, told Courthouse News that Macron’s strategy comes down to mathematics. Because of differences between political groups who could refuse to work with each other, he had a better shot at uniting parties from the center to far-right of the spectrum rather than the other way around.
“He needed a person from the center-right to on the one hand correspond to Macron’s program, particularly on pension reform,” Rouban said. “And then [Barnier] is someone who will have the support of the Macronists, the centrists, the Republicans and the neutrality of the National Rally.”
Barnier, who is now the oldest prime minister in the history of modern France at 73, has worked in French politics for almost 50 years. His roles have ranged widely, including areas as distinct as the environment and international affairs, and he served as the European Union’s Brexit negotiator. He also played a big role in the organization of France’s winter Olympics in Albertville in 1992.
In Rouban’s view, Barnier is pragmatic and has strong managerial skills. Barnier is a hardliner on immigration control and proposed placing a three to five-year “moratorium” on immigration to stop the flow of undocumented migrants. He also advocated for France to unbind itself from the international immigration rules imposed by the European Union.
This is likely where Barnier was able to align with Marine Le Pen, the head of the National Rally. Macron reportedly sought Le Pen’s approval while he was searching for a prime minister candidate, which made headlines on Friday morning.
“Before appointing Barnier, he must have certainly asked Marine Le Pen’s opinion,” Rouban said. “So he has her green light.”