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More than 100,000 left-wing demonstrators rallied across France on Saturday to protest against the nomination of the centre-right Michel Barnier as prime minister and denounce President Emmanuel Macron’s “power grab”.
The interior ministry said 110,000 people took to the streets nationwide, including 26,000 in Paris, while one leading left-winger put the turnout across France at 300,000.
Rallies took place in cities across France including Nantes in the west, Nice and Marseille in the south and Strasbourg in the east.
Macron on Thursday appointed Barnier, a 73-year-old former foreign minister who acted as the European Union’s Brexit negotiator, as prime minister, seeking to move forward after snap elections in which his centrist alliance came second.
Barnier said on Friday that he was open to naming ministers of all political stripes, including “people from the left”.
But a left-wing coalition, which emerged as France’s largest political bloc after the June-July elections, although short of an overall majority, has denounced Macron’s appointment of Barnier.
The alliance wanted Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist, to become prime minister, but Macron quashed that idea, arguing that she would not survive a confidence vote in the hung parliament.
On Saturday, many demonstrators directed their anger at Macron, 46, and some called on him to resign.
“The Fifth Republic is collapsing,” said 21-year-old protester Manon Bonijol, referring to France’s current system of government.
“Expressing one’s vote will be useless as long as Macron is in power,” she added.
Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, whose France Unbowed party (LFI) and allies belong to the left-wing bloc, had called for people to take to the streets, arguing that the election had been “stolen from the French”.
On Saturday, he urged supporters to prepare for battle.
“There will be no pause,” he vowed.
“Democracy isn’t just the art of accepting that you’ve won, it’s also the humility of accepting that you’ve lost,” Melenchon said at the Paris march.
AFP