{"id":412929,"date":"2024-12-11T15:04:11","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T14:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2024\/12\/11\/francia-trattative-nuovo-governo-macron\/"},"modified":"2024-12-16T17:52:17","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T16:52:17","slug":"france-final-hours-of-hectic-negotiations-to-form-a-new-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2024\/12\/11\/france-final-hours-of-hectic-negotiations-to-form-a-new-government\/","title":{"rendered":"France: final hours of hectic negotiations to form a new government"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – It is a hectic time in Paris, with<\/strong>\u00a0frantic negotiations <\/strong>underway to form\u00a0<\/strong>a new government after the\u00a0fall<\/a> of Michel Barnier<\/strong>, the shortest-lived in\u00a0the Fifth Republic. President Emmanuel Macron<\/strong> assured yesterday (Dec. 10) that by tomorrow, he will pull a name out of his hat<\/strong> to lead the next executive, which, in his plans, should obtain the support of the entire parliamentary arc\u00a0<\/strong>except for the radical left and the far right,\u00a0and which will have to give the country a budget for the coming year<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In previous episodes<\/h3>\n

On Dec. 4, Barnier lost a vote of confidence in the National Assembly<\/strong>, the lower house of the transalpine legislature. The former European commissioner and EU Brexit negotiator stumbled over the budget plan for 2025.<\/strong>\u00a0French public accounts<\/strong> (but also the differential with German 10-year treasury bonds) are now\u00a0scaring the\u00a0Eurozone with\u00a0<\/strong>contagion risks.<\/a><\/p>\n

Last weekend the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral<\/strong> in Paris was in the spotlight, with Macron welcoming heads of state and government from all over\u00a0the world (including Italian President Sergio Mattarella<\/strong>, US President-elect Donald Trump,<\/strong> Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky,<\/strong> and Georgia’s Salom\u00e9 Zourabichvili<\/strong>) to try to prove that he\u00a0still counts on the international stage after the historical signing<\/a>, by Ursula von der Leyen<\/strong>, of the EU-Mercosur<\/strong> trade agreement, which France has always fiercely\u00a0opposed but which, in the end, monsieur le Pr\u00e9sident<\/i>\u00a0did not manage\u00a0to prevent.<\/p>\n

\"Michel<\/a>
Resigning French prime minister Michel Barnier (photo: Alain Jocard\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Uphill battle<\/h3>\n

Then, as the week began, domestic politics returned as the main concern. Yesterday, Macron welcomed<\/a> at the Elysee Palace representatives of the political forces in the hemicycle<\/strong> to work out a “method contract<\/strong>” to bring\u00a0as many parties as possible together to\u00a0support a government of national unity<\/strong> and help\u00a0France emerge from\u00a0its worst political crisis in the Cinqui\u00e8me R\u00e9publique<\/i><\/strong>.\u00a0 Indeed, the head of state calling for consultations is an unusual practice beyond the Alps.<\/p>\n

Macron is aiming for a centrist consensus ranging at least from the Socialists<\/strong> (PS-PL)<\/strong>of Rapha\u00ebl Glucksmann<\/strong> and Olivier Faure<\/strong> to Les R\u00e9publicains<\/i> (LR)<\/strong>, the neo-Gaullist party of which Barnier\u00a0is a member, passing, of course, through the presidential coalition Ensemble<\/i><\/strong>. Together, these groups could count on about 280 seats in the House, with the Elys\u00e9e head hoping that\u00a0the 55 elected representatives among the ecologists and communists<\/strong> could join their ranks.\u00a0From them, the head of state expects — if not direct support for the executive — at least a commitment not to censure it again<\/strong>. The threshold for an absolute majority is 288 out of 575.<\/p>\n

Beyond the numbers, however,\u00a0reaching an agreement will be far from easy<\/strong>. The forces of the variegated transalpine center-left united in the Nouveau front populaire<\/i> (NFP)<\/strong> continue to urge\u00a0for a progressive exponent to be installed at Palais Matignon, the seat of government, both to respect the results of the\u00a0July<\/a>\u00a0election and turn the page decisively on the Barnier<\/strong> experiment, replacing the historical face of transalpine conservatism with a new personality. However,\u00a0between the parliamentary groups, there seems to be a wall-to-wall.<\/strong>\u00a0LR does not seem\u00a0willing to govern with the progressives, who\u00a0are also doubtful about the feasibility of a broad-based government.<\/p>\n

\"Olivier<\/a>
Socialist Party Secretary General Olivier Faure (center) arrives at the Elysee Palace for consultations with President Macron (photo: Thomas Samson\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to media reports, the most likely\u00a0candidate to replace Barnier is Fran\u00e7ois Bayrou<\/strong>. He is the 73-year-old leader of the Mouvement d\u00e9mocrate <\/i>(MoDem)<\/strong>, one of the Macronist coalition parties that holds 36 seats out of Ensemble<\/i>‘s 166 total.\u00a0Bayrou has seen Macron several times recently, with nothing leaking about the content of their meetings.<\/p>\n

Divide and conquer<\/i><\/h3>\n

However, not everyone was invited to the consultations. According to a precise strategy of the liberal head of state,\u00a0“les extr\u00e8mes<\/i>” were kept out of the door: the radical left wing of La France Insoumise<\/i> (LFI)<\/strong>, led by Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon<\/strong>, and the far-right of the Rassemblement National <\/i>(RN)<\/strong> of Marine Le Pen<\/strong> and Jordan Bardella<\/strong>. According to sources in the Elys\u00e9e Palace, Macron aims to “no longer depend” on the RN<\/strong>, which has, so far, made its mark in the hemicycle, whether or not associating itself with motions presented by the left, ensuring some stability for the head of state, who has reiterated that he wants to complete his term, expiring in 2027.<\/p>\n

It is evident, moreover, that the president’s other goal is to break\u00a0the unity of the NFP<\/strong>, the united left\u00a0front that is not so united after all since its different souls have always struggled to coexist, in particular,<\/strong>\u00a0due to\u00a0the assertive nature of\u00a0M\u00e9lenchon, leader of the party that was rewarded the most in the elections (LFI has 72 seats in the Assembly) but unpalatable especially for the Socialists,<\/i><\/strong> who traditionally have a governing vocation. According to national newspaper reports, the Insoumis <\/i>is reportedly\u00a0<\/i>trying to “unseat” the environmentalists (and perhaps the communists as well) from the social democrats, isolating the latter entirely.<\/p>\n

\"Jean-Luc<\/a>
La France insoumise leader Jean-Luc M\u00e9lenchon (photo: Sebastien Salom-Gomis\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The crux of the budget<\/h3>\n

\n

Whatever its final composition, the main task of the new executive will be to pass a budget law for 2025<\/strong>. \u00a0In these hours,\u00a0the last council of ministers of the resigning government\u00a0is taking place <\/a>precisely regarding next year’s\u00a0budget. The outcome\u00a0should be a “special draft law”<\/strong> to ensure the continuity of state operations from January: the Assembly will consider this document on\u00a0December 16,\u00a0and the Senate two days later.<\/p>\n

According to French media reports, the text would be cut to the bone<\/strong>, authorizing the government to raise taxes and spend the appropriations already decided in\u00a0the 2024 budget. The most delicate step will likely be, once again, indexing pensions and income taxes to inflation<\/strong>, as demanded by RN: a scheme that the Macronists reject, however, and that the Council of State itself reportedly rejected,<\/a>\u00a0ruling out\u00a0the possibility of including it in the special draft budget<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Paris, Macron is trying to pull the strings of an extremely delicate operation after Barnier’s government fell last week, opening an unprecedented political crisis. As the search for a majority in the most balkanized Assembly ever continues, the Elys\u00e9e Palace is racing against time to give the country a budget law for 2025<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":412882,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26261,26260,28462,26583,28926,26584,29879,28385],"class_list":["post-412929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-emmanuel-macron-en","tag-jean-luc-melenchon-en","tag-marine-le-pen-en-2","tag-michel-barnier-en","tag-rassemblement-national-en","tag-new-popular-frontier-in","tag-new-front-popular-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412929"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":413163,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412929\/revisions\/413163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}