More than 100 thousand left-wing protesters They took to the streets on Saturday throughout France to protest against the appointment of the conservative politician Michel Barnier as Prime Minister and report a ““coup de force” by President Emmanuel Macron.
The police He said that 110 thousand people took to the streets, 26 thousand people in Paris, but the Organizers said 300,000 people participated andn the more than 150 demonstrations throughout France.
Five people were arrested for carrying prohibited weapons, shelling and damage at Paris demonstration, police said.
The protests took place in Paris, as well as in Nantes in the west, Nice and Marseille in the south and Strasbourg in the east.
Macron appointed Thursday as Prime Minister to Barnier, a former minister 73 years old, parliamentarian, who acted as Brexit negotiator for the European Union, in an attempt to make progress after early elections in July in which his centrist alliance lost its relative majority in parliament.
Barnier said on Friday night that is willing to appoint ministers of all political leanings, including “people on the left.”
But the New Popular Front (NFP), the left-wing coalition that emerged as France’s largest force After the elections, although without enough seats for an absolute majority, he was dismayed by Barnier’s appointment.
On Saturday, many protesters directed their anger at Macron, with some even calling for his resignation.
“The Fifth Republic is collapsing,” said the protester Manon Bonijol“Voting in parliament will be useless as long as Macron is in power,” the 21-year-old added.
The far-left leader Jean Luc Mélenchonwhose party La France Insoumise (LFI) and allies belong to the left-wing bloc, said the election was “stolen from the French” and called on them to take to the streets.
On Saturday he urged his followers to prepare for battle. “There will be no pause,” he promised.
“Democracy is not only the art of accepting that you have won, it is also the humility of accepting that you have lost,” Mélenchon said from a truck at the Paris protest.
Under surveillance
The left alliance wanted Lucie Castetsa 37-year-old economist, was tipped to become prime minister, but Macron scrapped the idea, arguing she would not survive a confidence vote in the divided parliament.
From the far right, Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally (RN) He warned Barnier that the new government would risk being censured if it failed to take into account the demands of his party.
“I hope that the Prime Minister and the future government will not only be able to get down to work, but will also be attentive to the demands that are now ours,” he added.
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“I think that from today, Barnier is a prime minister under surveillance (…) of a political party that is now an unavoidable part of the parliamentary game,” he insisted.
Barnier replied to Bardella that he was “under the surveillance of all French people.”
“The government is under the democratic supervision of all French people and all political sectors,” Barnier said during his first act after his appointment, a visit to the Necker hospital in Paris.