һƷ̽’s Susan Price spoke to John Mullen, a revolutionary socialist activist in the Paris region, about the deep political crisis in France.
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Why did right-wing French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu resign, less than a day after nominating his team of ministers, before then being reappointed as PM three days later?
Since July 2024, after he lost the parliamentary elections, President Emmanuel Macron has been running an antidemocratic circus. Instead of appointing a prime minister from the largest group in the assembly — the left-wing alliance, New Popular Front, which has 193 out of 577 MPs — he has appointed a series of centre-right PMs.
The first two — Michel Barnier and François Bayrou — each stumbled along for a few months. They relied on the fact that the far-right National Rally (with 123 MPs) and the generally social-liberal Socialist Party (with 68) would not support a vote of no confidence against Macron’s government, in the name of “stability”.
Macron’s minority governments have passed almost no new legislation over the past 15 months in the National Assembly. However, Macron’s ministers have had plenty of power, each in their own field, to ramp up repression against protesters and trade unions, attack immigrant rights and control the media agenda. This is partly why Macron is so scared of a left government with a radical left wing.
So, when Bayrou lost a vote of confidence in September, he was replaced by Macron’s close ally, Lecornu.
Lecornu made loud speeches about the importance of breaking with the past, and about the need for the French to learn the art of compromise. After three weeks of not appointing a cabinet, he admitted that his compromises in favour of left-wing ideas would not even include a modest wealth tax, or withdrawing the hated law that last year raised the retirement age from 62 to 64.
In early October, he named his team of ministers: all but a couple of them were the same ministers chosen by Bayrou and thrown out the previous month.
But we didn’t really have time to protest, because just 14 hours after naming his cabinet — and in the face of already sharp rows within its ranks — the PM resigned.
After Lecornu’s resignation, frantic talks between party leaders continued as Macron tasked him with a last-ditch attempt to find a basis for compromise, and a way of getting the national budget voted through before December 31.
As part of this, Lecornu suggested that some of the vicious cuts in social budgets planned by his predecessor Bayrou would be abandoned.
In a clownish move which left commentators stunned, Macron, failing after two days of talks to find a Plan B, reappointed Lecornu to the position of PM, on October 10.
Is Macronism unravelling?
Definitely. Aurore Bergé, spokesperson for the outgoing government, announced solemnly on October 8: “there is no question of the president resigning”. It is rarely a good sign when presidents need to have this kind of statement put out.
showed that only 14% of citizens have a positive opinion of Macron.
The situation is changing hour by hour, and prediction is a hazardous occupation. The new government is unlikely to last long. The 71 radical left France Insoumise [FI] MPs have signed a motion demanding Macron’s impeachment, citing his contempt for democratic process. A dozen Communist MPs and a dozen ecologists have also signed on.
Perhaps more worrying for Macron, is that this week his own former PM Edouard Philippe also called on him to resign.
How have the left forces reacted?
Last year, in the face of the imminent threat of a fascist government, the entire left made an electoral alliance, based on a fairly radical program, and agreed on a joint candidate for Prime Minister, Lucie Castets.
Since then, the alliance has been in constant crisis, with the Socialist Party (PS) wanting out. The PS joined the alliance partly in the hope of regaining some of its legitimacy — which collapsed after Francois Hollande’s austerity presidency. This sent the PS vote down to about 6% in the 2017 presidential election.
But PS leader Olivier Faure was begging Macron to be appointed PM this week, distancing himself eagerly from the FI and from the radical manifesto he had himself signed up to 15 months ago.
He is hoping for a couple of concessions from Macron. There are rumours that the attack on the retirement age might be suspended, though right-wing parliamentary leaders insist this is unacceptable.
The FI is the most determined opposition to Macron, and has campaigned unceasingly on the question of Palestine (as I write four FI MPs have just left Israeli jails after having been kidnapped by Israel from Gaza flotilla boats).
The Greens and Communists have more consistently opposed the government than the PS, but have jumped on every opportunity to denounce FI “extremism” or “irresponsibility”, and to build alliances excluding the FI, and even now they are not all calling for Macron to go.
How are Macron’s supporters trying to present the situation?
Although the balance of forces in the country obliges TV and radio to regularly present long interviews with leaders of the ecologists, the FI and the Communist Party, the media spend endless energy building confusion and reactionary narratives.
This month they are arguing that France is on the verge of bankruptcy, that the situation is so grave that it is only common sense to unite the left and right behind Macron’s policies, and forget the idea of defending public service budgets or pensions.
At the same time, there is a continuing smear campaign against Jean Luc Mélenchon and the FI, a campaign to which leaders of the soft left contribute.
Socialist MP Jérôme Guedj called Mélenchon “an antisemitic bastard” from the stage of the PS party conference last June. The PS leadership did not object.
Hundreds of thousands of people mobilised across France on September 10, September 18 and October 2 against the austerity budget. What social forces are being drawn into action and what challenges are facing the movement, including within the trade union sector?
When political institutions are paralysed, strikes and street mobilisations are even more important than at other times. In recent weeks, we have seen trade-union-led mass strikes as well as grassroots direct actions set up by the “Blockade everything” [Bloquons tout] networks.
The mobilisations use tactics such as wildcat occupations and blockades, which are reminiscent of the Yellow Vest [Gilets Jaunes] movement from 2018 to 2020. However, they have significant differences. They are less rooted in rural areas than the Yellow Vests. They are not yet as widespread, and the far right has not been trying to infiltrate, as it did — initially with some success — into the Yellow Vests.
The trade union days of action on September 18 and October 2 were big — with strikes and demonstrations in more than 200 towns. Nevertheless, the movement is being crippled by the horrendous tactics of the professional negotiators who lead the trade unions.
Firstly, there was no national call from the trade union coordinating committee (intersyndicale) for September 10, because of the mistrust of union leaders with regard to the Blockade Everything actions. Then, after the success of September 18, rather than building on the dynamic, union leaders said they would give the government five days to respond, before calling a further day of action. But days of action every couple of weeks tend to dissipate combativity: there were 14 of them in the huge and eventually unsuccessful movement to defend pensions in 2023!
Furthermore, the present showdown with the government had been predicted for many months, but no preparations were made by the national leaders for serious strike action. A general strike could have been built — the level of anger is sufficient — but was not.
Some federations such as the CGT [General Confederation of Labour] and Solidaires are more combative than others, such as the CFDT [French Democratic Confederation of Labour]. But, behind closed doors, the compromises reached in the intersyndicale mean that the whole strike movement moves, in practice, at the speed of the least combative organisation — however inspiring the radio interviews by CGT leader Sophie Binet might be.
What about the far-right National Rally? Is it trying to carve out its own space in this crisis?
Yes, it is. The Rassemblement National [RN] candidate (in case of a presidential election), sharply-dressed young fascist Jordan Bardella, is getting up to 30% in opinion polls. RN candidate Marine Le Pen got 13 million votes in 2022, and 11 million in the 2024 legislative elections, so it obviously represents a huge threat.
The RN is far stronger in electoral terms than in the streets: there have been no mass far-right demonstrations for decades. But the power of the far right has helped inspire recent governments to pass more racist and particularly Islamophobic laws and decrees.
Having failed to maintain their initial influence on the Yellow Vest movement in 2018–19, partly because of their inability to denounce police violence, the fascists decided to concentrate ever more on a policy of respectability. Links with big business circles are still occasional but getting stronger all the time.
The traditional right and the Macronists are divided on how to deal with RN. Most would prefer to win over its supporters with rabid anti-Muslim and anti-migrant measures; but a growing minority would be open to an alliance with it.
This week, Bardella called for a governmental alliance between his party and the traditional right-wing Republicans. This is not likely in the short term, but is a sign of the continued mainstreaming of fascism in France.
In the coming weeks we need strike movements that go further than most national union leaders want, as have been seen before, for example in 1995 and 2006. We also need to inside and around it.
The régime’s crisis is far from over, there could easily be new elections before Christmas, and Macron’s obvious weakness could help encourage the majority of French citizens, who want a break with Macron, the president of the rich.
[John Mullen is a revolutionary socialist from the Paris region and a supporter of the France Insoumise. Visit his website at .]