"Block Everything’: Riots, unrest take over France amid pressure on Emmanuel Macron to resign

[Bhaag Viru Bhaag]

As Lecornu begins his tenure as the French prime minister, protests have taken over France in what is being called the leader's "baptism by fire."​

Riots and unrest have taken over France a day after French President Emmanuel Macron announced his new pick for prime minister. As pressure grows on Macron to resign from his post, mass demonstrations took over Paris as part of the “Block Everything” movement on Wednesday.

Following the ouster of François Bayrou, President Macron named close ally and loyalist Sebastien Lecornu as the new prime minister of France. The 39-year-old leader is France's fifth prime minister in less than two years as political instability continues to grapple the European nation.

As Lecornu begins his tenure as the French prime minister, protests have taken over France in what is being called the leader's "baptism by fire."

Riots, unrest spread across France​

On Wednesday, the “Bloquons Tout,” or “Block Everything" movement took over the streets of Paris as protestors blocked roads and set fire to a bus.


As per the interior ministry, at least 200 people have been arrested amid the unrest, which also caused damage to a power line for the railway system.

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau condemned the protests and alleged that the demonstrators were attempting to create "a climate of insurrection".


The interior minister added that around 80,000 security forces have been deployed across France, of which, 6,000 have been deployed in Paris.



Videos of the unrest have taken over social media with protestors seen setting garbage on fire, throwing dumpsters and clashing with police officials.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1965699000344146345

Pressure on Macron to resign​

Since his re-election in 2022, French President Macron has faced immense pressure to resign. Wednesday's protest also echo a similar demand.


Speaking to AFP, a protestor called Macron's decision to name his ally as the PM was a "slap in the face", adding that France "needs change".


"It's the same sh**, it's the same, it's Macron who's the problem, not the ministers," a representative for the RATP public transport branch of the CGT union told Reuters amid the protests.


In the past three years, France has seen several protests which have called for the president's resignation.


In 2023, France witnessed nationwide unrest and rioting after 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk was killed in an encounter with two police officers.


Additionally, anger over the unpopular pension reforms also triggered nationwide protests with participation from over one million people across France.

‘Block Everything’: Riots, unrest take over France amid pressure on Macron to resign

As Lecornu begins his tenure as the French prime minister, protests have taken over France in what is being called the leader's "baptism by fire."

www.hindustantimes.com

 

[The Bald Eagle]

Yes, this clown needs to be removed too

 

[Champ_Pal]

Leftist and socialist scum have become very violent in the past Few decades. Anything that goes against their world view is not tolerated. No better than religious extremists. Both are terrorists.

 

[HalBass9]

Leftist and socialist scum have become very violent in the past Few decades. Anything that goes against their world view is not tolerated. No better than religious extremists. Both are terrorists.

Majority of far right and conservative extremists are religious fanatics, yet somehow they never get called terrorists. Convenient how you ‘forgot’ to mention them.

 

[BouncerGuy]

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resigns after less than a month

France's Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has resigned, less than a day after his cabinet was unveiled.

"The conditions were not fulfilled for me to carry on as prime minister," Lecornu said on Monday morning, and criticised the unwillingness by political parties to reach compromises.

The Elysée palace made the announcement after Lecornu met President Emmanuel Macron for an hour on Monday morning.

The shock move comes only 26 days after Lecornu was appointed prime minister following the collapse of the previous government of François Bayrou.

Parties across the board in the National Assembly had fiercely criticised the composition of Lecornu's cabinet, which was largely unchanged from Bayrou's, and threatened to vote it down.

There has not yet been any comment from President Macron, who now faces a set of unenviable choices - resignation, new elections or the appointment of a new prime minister who may well be toppled within weeks.

Several parties are clamouring for early elections and some are calling for Macron to go - although he has always said he will not stand down before his term ends in 2027.

"The only wise thing to do now is to hold elections," said Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally (RN).

"The joke's gone on long enough. French people are fed up. Macron has put the country in an extremely difficult position," she added.

Lecornu - the former armed forces minister and a Macron loyalist - was France's fifth prime minister in under two years.

In his brief speech outside the Hôtel de Matignon, the prime minister's residence, which he only occupied for less than a month, Lecornu sharply criticised the "partisan appetites" of political factions, who he said "are all behaving as if they had an absolute majority".

"I was ready for compromise but all parties wanted the other party to adopt their programmes in their entirety," he said.

"It wouldn't need much for this to work," he added, saying, however, that parties needed to be more humble and "to cast some egos aside".

French politics has been highly unstable since July 2024, when Macron called for snap parliamentary elections in a bid to achieve a clear majority following a bruising loss for his party in the European Parliament vote.

Instead the elections resulted in a hung parliament divided into ideologically opposed factions deeply at odds with one another and unwilling to work together.

This has made it difficult for any prime minister to garner the necessary support to pass any bills.

Michel Barnier was appointed prime minister last September but was ousted within three months.

The government of his successor François Bayrou's too was voted down after nine months after parliament refused to back his austerity budget, which aimed to slash government spending by €44bn ($51bn; £38bn).

France's deficit reached 5.8% of its GDP in 2024 and its national debt is 114% of its GDP. That is the third highest public debt in the eurozone after Greece and Italy, and equivalent to almost €50,000 per French citizen.

Stocks fell sharply on the Paris exchange after the news of Lecornu's resignation broke on Monday morning.

BBC

 

[BouncerGuy]

Macron should call early presidential vote, his first PM says

Emmanuel Macron should name a prime minister to push through a budget and then call early presidential elections to solve France's political crisis, his first prime minister has said.

Édouard Philippe's comments come after France's third prime minister in a year, Sébastien Lecornu, resigned on Monday after his bid to form a government fell apart.

Macron has asked him to make a last-ditch plan for stability by the end of Wednesday - but support for the French president appears to be waning even among his allies.

Philippe, who was prime minister from 2017-20 and now leads the centrist Horizons party, said he was "not in favour of his immediate and abrupt resignation", but that it was up to the president to live up to his mandate.

Meanwhile, Gabriel Attal - who leads Macron's Renaissance party and was prime minister for six months in 2024 - went on national TV on Monday night to say he "no longer understands the decisions made by the president of the republic".

The president had tried to re-establish control three times in the past year, said Attal, and it was now time to share power with other parties: "I think we should try something else."

Until now, pressure on the 47-year-old French president to resign has come largely from his political opponents on the more radical left and hard right.

The public interventions from his allies indicate just how serious the political crisis has become.

Macron, who has been in office since 2017, was captured on video walking alone by the River Seine in Paris on Monday, followed by his bodyguards, as the latest crisis swirled around his presidency.

His entourage indicated that he would "take responsibility" if Lecornu's last-ditch talks failed, without specifiying that that would mean.

Macron's centrist bloc lost its parliamentary majority after he called a snap parliamentary election in response to a defeat in last year's European Parliament vote.

Since then, he has struggled to push through an annual budget to bring down the country's soaring public debt. France's budget deficit is projected to hit 5.4% of economic output (GDP) this year.

Last month, François Bayrou resigned after losing a confidence vote in the French parliament when he tried to push through swingeing budget cuts. Now Lecornu, his successor, has resigned after only 26 days in the job, blaming "partisan appetites" among coalition parties.

Lecornu began talks with political leaders from the centre ground on Tuesday morning, in an attempt to find a way out of the impasse. Philippe said he would take part in the talks, although Bruno Retailleau, from the right-wing Republicans, said he would only meet Lecornu one-to-one.

"It's clear we're today in the middle of a political crisis that dismays and worries our fellow citizens," Philippe told RTL radio. "This political crisis is bringing the state into decline... the authority and continuity of the state aren't being respected."

Philippe, whose Horizons party has been part of Macron's government throughout his second presidential term, rejected calls from political opponents for the president's immediate resignation - but said it was up to Macron himself to find a solution.

"[Immediate resignation] would have a terrible impact and would prevent a presidential election taking place under good conditions," he told RTL on Tuesday.

However, he argued Macron should avert the crisis by naming a prime minister who could put through a budget, guarantee the continued workings of the state, and leave in an "orderly manner".

"When you're head of state, you don't use the institutions, you serve them - and he should serve the institutions by finding a solution to this political crisis."

Macron's poll ratings have nose-dived in recent months and one survey of 1,000 French people conducted for newspaper Le Figaro suggested that 53% of them thought he should stand down.

Meanwhile, a van burst into flames on the same street as the prime minister's residence on the Rue de Varenne on Tuesday morning, in what commentators suggested was symbolic of the continuing political crisis.

Macron should call early presidential vote, says his first PM Édouard Philippe

Édouard Philippe's intervention comes a day after the French president's latest PM resigned just days into the role.

www.bbc.com

 

[BouncerGuy]

Macron will nominate new French prime minister in 48 hours

French President Emmanuel Macron will name a new prime minister within 48 hours, the Elysee Palace has said, fending off speculation that fresh elections could be imminent.

Earlier on Wednesday, outgoing Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the possibility of dissolving parliament was beginning to fade following talks with political parties over the last two days.

"There is a majority in parliament and that is the majority that is keen to avoid fresh elections," he said.

On Monday, Lecornu - a close ally of Macron - became the third French PM to leave his job in less than a year, driven out by a hung parliament deeply divided along ideological lines.

He was then asked by Macron to stay on for two days to form a consensus among parties on how to get out of the current political crisis.

In a much-awaited TV interview on Wednesday evening, Lecornu gave no indication about who the next prime minister would be, and although he said his mission was "finished", he also did not appear to rule himself out entirely.

He said that as well as not wanting fresh elections, most MPs also recognised the pressing need to pass a budget by the end of the year.

However, he recognised the path towards forming a government was still complicated due to the divisions within parliament and to politicians eyeing the next presidential election.

Whoever ends up in government "will need to be completely disconnected from any presidential ambition for 2027," said Lecornu, a former armed forces minister.

France's political stalemate began following snap elections in July 2024. Since then no one party has had a majority, making it difficult to pass any laws or reforms including the yearly budget.

The big challenge facing Lecornu and his two predecessors has been how to tackle France's crippling national debt, which this year stood at €3.4tn (£2.9tn), or almost 114% of economic output (GDP), the third highest in the eurozone after Greece and Italy.

Previous prime ministers Michel Barnier and Francois Bayrou were ousted in confidence votes after they presented austerity budgets.

Lecornu said his own draft budget would be presented next week, although it would be "open for debate".

"But the debate needs to begin... parties cannot say they'll vote it down without examining it," he added.

Similarly, Lecornu said, one big issue that has been plaguing French politics since 2023 will need to be revisited - Macron's highly contested pension reforms. "We have to find a way for the debate to take place," Lecornu said.

But some factions in parliament appear immovable from their positions.

Mathilde Panot of the radical left France Unbowed (LFI) said soon after Lecornu's TV interview that the only solution was "the resignation and departure of Emmanuel Macron".

Meanwhile, far right National Rally's leader Marine Le Pen, who has long been calling for fresh elections, stated on Wednesday that she would vote down any new government.

It is unclear, at this stage, which political forces would support a new government.

The so-called common platform of centrists and Republicans that have run the government since last year appears to have fallen apart.

The big question now is whether over the last 48 hours Lecornu was able to persuade the Socialists, who were part of that left bloc during the elections, to prop up a government in some way.

Asked about the calls by some political factions for Macron to resign, with even Macron's own former prime minister Edouard Philippe floating the idea earlier this week, Lecornu said France needed a stable, internationally recognised figure at its helm.

"This is not the time to change the president," Lecornu said.

However, Macron is appearing increasingly isolated, with even close allies beginning to distance themselves from him.

Earlier this week Gabriel Attal, widely seen as Macron's protégé, said he "no longer understood" Macron and called for the appointment of an independent negotiator to steer the government.

Macron has not yet spoken publicly since Lecornu's shock resignation on Monday morning. Lecornu promised the president would "address the French people in due course," without specifying when that may be.

BBC

 

[BouncerGuy]

Macron reappoints Lecornu as French PM after days of turmoil

President Emmanuel Macron has asked Sébastien Lecornu to return as French prime minister only four days after he stood down from the post, sparking a week of high drama and political turmoil.

Macron made the announcement late on Friday, hours after meeting all the main parties together at the Élysée Palace, except the leaders of the far right and far left.

Lecornu's return came as a surprise, as he said on national TV only two days ago he was not "chasing the job" and his "mission is over".

It is not even certain he will be able to form a government, but he will have to hit the ground running. The new prime minister faces a deadline on Monday to put next year's budget before parliament.

The Élysée said the president had "tasked [Lecornu] with forming a government" and Macron's entourage indicated he had been given "carte blanche" to act.

Lecornu, who is 39 and one of Macron's most loyal allies, then released a long statement on X in which he accepted "out of duty the mission entrusted to me by the president, to do everything to provide France with a budget by the end of the year and respond to the everyday problems of our compatriots".

When he appeared on French TV this week, Lecornu described himself as a "soldier-monk", and as he prepared to get to grips with forming a government he said on Friday "I will do everything to succeed in this mission".

Political divisions over how to bring down France's national debt and cut the budget deficit have led to the fall of two of the past three prime ministers in the last year, so his challenge is immense.

France's public debt earlier this year was almost 114% of economic output (GDP) - the third highest in the eurozone - and this year's budget deficit is projected to hit 5.4% of GDP.

Among the conditions Lecornu listed for taking on the job, one was that "no-one will be able to shirk" the necessity of restoring France's public finances. With only 18 months before the end of Macron's presidency, he also warned that anyone joining his government would have to put on hold their presidential ambitions.

What makes it even harder for Lecornu is that he will face a vote of confidence in a National Assembly where Macron has no majority to support him. The president's popularity hit a record low this week, according to an Elabe poll that put his approval rating on 14%.

Jordan Bardella of the far-right National Rally, which was not invited to Macron's talks with party leaders on Friday, said that Lecornu's reappointment was a "bad joke", from a president "more than ever isolated and disconnected at the Élysée".

Bardella said his party would immediately bring a vote of no confidence against a doomed coalition, whose only reason for being was fear of an election. National Rally is currently leading in the polls.

Lecornu at least knows the pitfalls ahead as he tries to form a government, because he has already spent two days this week talking to parties that might take part.

He was first appointed prime minister on 9 September and took the next three weeks to put together a government, only for it to fall apart overnight when the the leader of the conservative Republicans, Bruno Retailleau, criticised one of the ministerial appointments.

By themselves the centrist parties cannot form a government, and there are splits within the conservative Republicans who have helped prop up Macron's governments since he lost his majority in elections last year.

Retailleau, who is known to have presidential ambitions, has made clear he will not be part of Lecornu II, and has declared the socle commun (common platform) of centrists and conservatives as dead. Not all his party colleagues agree.

But it means the centrist prime minister is also looking to left-wing parties for potential support.

In an attempt to court the left, Macron's team indicated the president was considering a delay to part of his highly contentious pension reforms passed in 2023 which raised the retirement age from 62 to 64.

That risks angering key centrist allies, who fought hard to get pension reforms through. It also falls short of the demands of left-wing leaders as they were hoping Macron would choose a prime minister from their side.

Olivier Faure of the Socialists said "since we've not been given any guarantees, we won't give any guarantee [to back the prime minister] in a vote of confidence".

Fabien Roussel from the Communists said after meeting the president that the left wanted real change, and a prime minister from the president's centrist camp would not be accepted by the French people.

Greens leader Marine Tondelier said she was "stunned" Macron had offered the left almost nothing, adding that "all of this is going to turn out very badly".

While Macron and his reappointed prime minister look to slash the government's budget deficit by tens of billions of euros, the head of France's central bank has warned that the political turmoil will set the economy back even further.

The bank is forecasting growth this year of 0.7%, but its chief François Villeroy de Galhau says it could have been higher and the uncertainty surrounding the crisis has cost France an estimated 0.2% of extra growth.

"Like many in France I've had enough of this [political] mess," he told RTL radio. "It's time for compromises - that's not a dirty word - even forming coalitions."

If Lecornu fails to form a government, there could be even more instability, and that will cost the French economy even more.

BBC