Protesters take to the streets against Macron in the French capital Paris
Tens of thousands of people joined around 70 protests across France on Saturday calling for the removal of neoliberal president Emmanuel Macron.
After two months of stalemate since elections at the start of July, Macron appointed veteran right winger Michel Barnier as prime minister. He can hold on to office only with the backing of the fascist RN party of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella.
The fascists are both kingmakers and directors of the government. “Nothing can be done without the RN,” said Bardella.
The LFI party of Jean-Luc Melenchon called Saturday’s marches and rallies. It is part of the New Popular Front which won the largest number of seats—but not a majority—at the elections. Macron refused to appoint its candidate as prime minister.
Melenchon marched in Marseille and said, “This government is a union of losers”. Earlier he wrote that now is the “hour of monsters”. He went on, “The dustbin of history was hungry. The losers teamed up under the leadership of the outgoing force.”
Barnier said he would announce his cabinet picks this weekend. They will be a mix of his own conservative figures and others from Macron’s EPR alliance.
The government’s aim is to ram through cuts and to harden still further the battery of laws against migrants and Muslims.
There was outrage over, for example, the proposed appointment of conservative senator Laurence Garnier as family minister. Garnier opposed both equal marriage and putting the right to abortion in the constitution.
But Barnier’s problems go far deeper than a few ministers. It’s unclear if he can pass a budget, and he can’t delay economic pain. He warned that France’s budgetary situation was “very serious”. The neoliberal European Union has placed France on a formal procedure for violating its budgetary rules.
The president of the Medef bosses’ organisation has demanded a government “to guarantee the continuation of the supply-side policy pursued since Macron came to power”. The corporations want tax cuts for businesses, more attacks on the retirement age, lower unemployment benefits and scapegoating of migrants. Barnier will attempt to deliver that.
Early leaks from the budget show at least £8 billion cuts in key services. But there will be more money for war, the generals and the internal repressive apparatus.
In the next month, Barnier will try to lure the fascists into backing his government while also keeping the Macron alliance on board. At any moment either the RN or parts of Macron’s lash-up might decide it’s time for him to go. And another level of political crisis will begin.
At one point his rule seemed so precarious that Barnier let it be known he was ready to resign. But Macron managed to persuade him to try again.
It’s crucial workers launch an independent struggle. The CGT union federation has called for strikes and protests on 1 October. That could be a base for the extended general strike that’s needed. But the union leaders have no plans for more than token action.
Mass mobilisation is urgent. The electoral pacts of the Popular Front—which promised to block the RN—helped the election of Macron supporters as MPs who have now empowered the fascists.
The LFI is pushing a motion in parliament to remove Macron. But it has almost no chance of passing all the constitutional hurdles designed to block it. This focus has led the movement into a concentration on parliament.
On 7 September, in the first round of action over Macron’s anti-democratic coup, over 300,000 people took to the streets in over 150 cities. Saturday’s protests were smaller.
It’s time for revolt against Marcon in the streets and workplaces—and in France’s colonial possessions. In both Martinique and Kanaky (New Caledonia) there are new waves of fightback over poverty and against French rule.
French police shot and killed two men in Kanaky on Thursday just days ahead of a public holiday marking France’s annexation of the Pacific island group.
The pro-independence FLNKS alliance of political parties denounced the deaths as “barbaric and humiliating methods” used by French police resulting in a “summary execution”.
The shootings bring the number of deaths in Kanaky to 13 since unrest began in May over French government changes to a voting law. Indigenous Kanak people said it would compromise their push for independence.
Barnier’s regime is fragile—so workers must be on the offensive. Across Europe fascists are growing from the crisis because the left is too small and too timid. Anti-austerity, anti-racist, pro-Palestine militancy is urgent.
Unions have called a general strike
Interview with a member of French revolutionary socialist group Autonomie de Classe
The real violence is coming from the racist thugs in uniforms
