Protests in France against the new prime minister

法国民众抗议新总理

Newshour

新闻

2024-09-08

42 分钟
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Protests are taking place across France over the appointment of Michel Barnier as the new French prime minister, after an election that resulted in a National Assembly without a majority. We hear from Nathalie Oziol, an MP with the left-wing La France Insoumise party. Also in the programme: the leaders of the UK and US foreign intelligence agencies speak together in public for the first time ever about the international world order being under threat; and Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde discusses his memoir. (Picture: French left parties call for rallies against President Macron's politics in Paris. The poster reads "No thank you''. Credit: Photo by Yoan Valatv/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)
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  • Hello, and welcome to Newshour from the BBC World Service.

  • Coming to you live from London, I'm James Kamara Samy.

  • They think they should be in government.

  • Instead, they have been on the streets.

  • Tens of thousands of supporters of left wing parties in France have been protesting today about President Macron's appointment of the veteran right wing politician Michel Barnier as prime minister.

  • Everyone hates Michel Barnier.

  • That was the chant in Marseille, the location of one of more than 100 marches across the country.

  • Well, it's more than two months since I was in Paris for NewsHour, reporting on the inconclusive result of a snap parliamentary election which saw a left wing alliance, a new popular front, win the most seats but fall well short of a majority.

  • It's taken that long an age in french political terms for President Macron to name a prime minister after he rejected the new popular fronts choice of the little known economist Lucy Castet.

  • The new Popular Front insisted their program should be adopted in full, even though they won barely more seats in the election than a centrist bloc loyal to President Macron and a populist right bloc led by Marine Le Pens.

  • National rally the three time presidential candidate has agreed to support Michel Barnier, provided she says he pursues tough security and immigration policies and respects her party mp's.

  • Among those attending the rallies today was Nathalie Oziol, an mp with the left wing La France insommise or France unbowed party.

  • Before going to a march in the southern city of Montpellier, she gave me her reaction to the nomination of Michel Barnier as prime minister.

  • This is a democratic scandal.

  • This is outrageous.

  • And you may well, you understand that french people are really angry and outraged because the impression is that their voice hasn't been heard.

  • That message hasn't been understood.

  • Of course, you won the largest number of seats in the new popular front, but you were far short of an overall majority in the assembly.

  • So there had to be some kind of compromise, didn't there?

  • That was the only way that some kind of workable government that wouldn't fall at the first hurdle could be found.