N. Peter Kramer’s Weekly Column
Social unrest and the swelling demand that Macron himself should resign undoubtedly contributed to the quick decision.
In this way Lecornu can share the high pressure of the planned protest day today and doesn’t fall it on the president alone. A grassroots movement Bloquons Tout (‘Let’s Block Everything’) organised the anti-government protest and the authorities planned already to deploy 80.000 police.
It will not be a dream-start for Lecornu, the fifth prime minister of Macron’s second term of forty months, who got the presidential instruction ‘to consult the political forces in parliament with a view to approving a budget and concluding agreements’.
The Parti Socialiste, whose support is needed to govern comfortably, warns that Macron’s choice of Lecornu ‘continues to persevere in a course in which no socialist will cooperate’. This is also a clear answer on Macron’s refusal to follow suggestions to approach the centre left and ignored the services Olivier Faure, leader of the PS, had offered.
On the far right, Marine Le Pen said the president was giving Macronism its last shot from his bunker, along with his little circle of loyalists’. Jean-Luc Mélanchon, leader of the united (radical) left including the PS, was unimpressed and complaining that nothing had changed and it was time for Macron’s departure from the presidency. Since the far right and the opposite (radical) left wing have together a clear majority in the Assemblée Générale, Sébastien Lecornu’s chance of success doesn’t look really promising.
A dark cloud is hanging over France: on Friday, the credit agency Fitch will reassess France’s still growing debts and could make its borrowing costs higher if it lowers its rating from AA.
