On 8 September, the sleepy minority government of François Bayrou fell. This was the reactionary prime minster who recently expressed sympathy with those who ‘felt we were being flooded with migrants’. Since June 2024, the left has had the biggest grouping within the French National Assembly, but President Macron is not prepared to respect democracy and appoint a left prime minister. Bayrou is the second right-wing PM to fall since. The only big change he managed was abolishing green regulations on some insecticides.
After eight months in office, he finally went too far, presenting a vicious budget which planned over forty billion euros in cuts, and which proposed to abolish two bank holidays. Faced with the threat of a yellow-vest style revolt in the streets by the new ‘Blockade Everything’ mobilisation, with mass strikes, and parliamentary motions of no confidence, the PM preferred himself to call a vote of confidence for 8 September, hoping that either the Socialist Party or the far-right National Rally would shore up his government as they had done before. They didn’t.
Macron immediately announced that the new prime minister will be Sébastien Lecornu, loyal Macronite and Minister for the Army, a well-known champion of bloated military budgets, an opponent of gay marriage and a fan of discreet meetings with fascist Marine Le Pen. The radical-left La France Insoumise, along with the Greens and Communists, are demanding Macron resign or be impeached. According to a poll by Conservative newspaper Le Figaro, 64% of French people want Macron out now.
The Socialist Party was obliged by popular pressure last year to make an electoral pact with forces much further to the left, a pact which succeeded, after the most dynamic left election campaign for decades, in keeping the fascist National Rally out of government. But now PS leaders are sweet-talking Macron. They begged him to name a Prime Minister from among them, and when he didn’t, declared how honoured they felt that the president had phoned their chief, Olivier Faure, an hour before nominating Lecornu! The PS is not saying whether they will vote out the new government, or agree a non-aggression pact: they are still hoping for crumbs. ‘We will listen to the new PM, but we won’t do a belly dance for him’ said Patrick Kanner, PS leader in the Senate, but they are probably rehearsing dance moves as we speak.
Raphael Glucksmann, who led the Socialist Party slate at the last European elections, recently declared that he would never again ally with Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise, even against the fascists. Communist Party and Green Party leaders are not as rotten as that, but they make sure they denounce the ‘extremism’ of the radical Left frequently.
The 10th September saw an inspiring mass of actions called by the new ‘Blockade Everything’ networks, aimed at bringing Macron down. Dozens of motorways were blockaded, including ring roads around Paris, Bordeaux and Lyon; high schools, factories, hypermarkets and universities were barricaded, while 280 decentralised rallies were held across the country. The Paris rallies were particularly noted for the crowds of dynamic high-school students. Across the country 80,000 police were mobilised, but the only ‘shocking’ incident in Paris was the burning of a Korean restaurant. After a couple of hours showing this fire from every conceivable angle, the TV had to admit it was actually caused by a police tear-gas canister.
There were also strikes on 10 September, even though the national Trade Union Coordinating Committee shamefully called to strike only from 18 September. These are exciting times, and we are hoping that workers, students and Blockade Everything mobilisations will build to a crescendo over the next ten days.
This is a major crisis and the fascists of the National Rally (who have 118 members of parliament) are hoping to gain from it. Their young leader, Jordan Bardella, is wearing posher suits and speaking more often of the ‘key role of business leaders’. His organisation also denounced the 10 September rebellion.
This week, Macron is clowning around on the international stage and demanding billions of euros for more spending on war, while the mass media are full of scaremongering about our economy being on the brink of collapse, screaming that only a compromise between left and right can save our beloved country. Talk shows have found their favourite debating topic for the week: is the real problem greedy boomer pensioners?
Millions of people know that the true problem is the 1%. Next Thursday’s strikes, and a rising movement in high schools could be the beginning of a movement that can force Macron out.
John Mullen is a revolutionary Socialist in the Paris area and a supporter of the France Insoumise. His website is randombolshevik.org