Along with deputies of the centre, the right and the far-right, Emmanuel Macron then became violently opposed to any left-winger from La France Insoumise(LFI) becoming minister, or any point of the Popular Front’s program (NPF) finding its way in policy.
Wrongly, but deliberately conflating the NPF program with that of the LFI (Mélanchon), these people threatened to trigger ‘the motion of censure’ should any such thing happen. From 7 October 2023 when Hamas attacked the State of Israel, the campaign to disparage the LFI doubled down with untruths and fallacious arguments – unfortunately not specific to just France – in the light of which to oppose the fascism of the Israeli prime minister amounts to ‘anti-Semitism’. As this justified the far-right National Rally (RN), it suddenly became very popular.
LFI then declared it was not interested in any ministerial portfolio in this situation, and that this should give a better chance to the Left Front. But Macron was now going to reject the Left Front candidate, Lucie Castets, a still serving senior civil servant in the finance and purchasing department of the City of Paris, around whose name all the NPFs had agreed.
Choosing the Prime Minister and setting up the government
Macron started to argue that no one had won an absolute majority in the election, no one had won! And about the nomination of a Prime Minister (his constitutional prerogative), he decided to wait until mid-August, for a full focus on the smooth running of the Olympic Games. On 23 August, he announced the opening of consultations with the leaderships of all the political parties now in the National Assembly since the election.
Those to be the first received at the Elysée were Lucie Castets accompanied by the leaders of the NFP (left-front). They showed ready to make compromises. They proposed to work collectively on some questions, to discuss with parliamentarians on others, to consult with the social partners around the minimum wage, pensions, the defence of public services. During that first interview, Macron seemed to admit that behind the electoral results, the French had wished for another policy. Three days later, he rejected Castets’ candidacy on the ground that it called “institutional stability” into question.
Which “institutional stability” was he talking of? If the National Assembly is split in three blocks, he brought this about himself when he dissolved government after the 9 June European elections where far-right RN (Le Pen) had scored very highly. He also chose to ignore the new political layout produced by the 7 July Legislative elections. Any instability now comes from his failed decisions and those of his movement. They all support his purpose to have the LFI kept out of everything. He also tried to break up the Popular Front NFP when the anti-NFP Socialist members he offered the PM job to, fortunately turned him down.
The NFP program is not an anti-capitalist program. It is a legislative contract based on minimal economic and social measures agreed by the forces within it. Even so, the implementation of this program would have clashed completely with Macron whose aims respond neither to the needs of the population nor to the general interests of the country. His only concern is for interests of the multinationals and high finance. And so he stands by the working methods and the reforms he has imposed since 2017, where he reiterates his contempt for the institutions, and for parliamentary democracy in particular.
E. Macron consults the political parties in the way that lets him choose the allies that will support the road-map he absolutely intends to follow through to the end of his mandate. This way, he can always blame his own political shortcomings on others. The Republicans (LR) are a right-wing party that won only 5.41% of the votes and 38 deputies, their worst score in recent years. Although he looked for them, they rejected the idea of a governmental coalition with him, and refused to offer a candidate for PM.
On 5 September 2024, and after numerous negotiations, Macron decided to take Michel Barnier for Prime Minister. Barnier is a politician who followed the Gaullist Party throughout its evolution and into the Republican Party[1]. Since 1995, Barnier has successively been Minister of the Environment, Delegate for European Affairs, then Minister of Foreign Affairs and Agriculture, until becoming European Commissioner in charge of the internal market and services, which enabled him to negotiate Brexit from the European Union’s side.
The final announcement of the new government came on 21 September with the appointment of 41 ministers dominated by the various right-wing factions, including the movement Renaissance created by Macron. Although the RN [Le Pen] is kept out, it is clear to everyone that it has influence and a word to say at the level of more authority, more austerity, more violence, more repression. The life conditions for the population are going to worsen, no doubt about it. Enough to observe how the views previously held by some of the present ministers come close to the extreme right, particularly on subjects like immigration, abortion and anti-social measures.
The parliamentary debate on the budget was delayed by eight days due to the late nomination of ministers. It is going to be a decisive debate for what comes next[2]. French public debt reached 3 trillion Euros [at the end of June 2024]. The budget deficit is set to rise to around 6% of GDP this year, twice the EU limit, putting France in the bad books of the European Commission[3]. There is no doubt that the 10 to 30 billion savings announced as necessary, are going to weigh very heavily on the population and working class, and on the quality of the public services like education, health and the working conditions too.
The Employers are themselves very worried about the result of the legislative election. They immediately called for the continuation of Macron’s policies. According to a press release from the Mouvement des Entreprises de France(MEDEF), Macron’s economic policy “produced results in terms of growth and jobs… as such is the right response to face the challenges of the ecological and digital transition that the country must meet.”
According to a former inspector general of finances, the trillion in debt was contracted during Macron’s presidency, and is for a good half caused by the pension payments! This shows how quickly the political situation in France can become untenable. The government’s roadmap is not yet drawn and the parliamentarians have not yet seen the accounts, but the press already announces drastic cuts in the State budget to reduce it immediately by 3 billion: development aid – 21%, sport – 12.3%, work and employment – 8.8%, agriculture – 7.8%, immigration – 6.4%. And this to name the most important few.
This government is hardly formed that it already causes polemics. When the JOP Paris 2024 (Olympics) were ongoing, sport was unanimously praised, the problems of 12 million persons with disabilities were acknowledged, and so were the 10 million caregivers. Now sport is going to receive one of the biggest cuts, and disability never troubled the government much. It is only under the pressure of many associations and elected officials that Michel Barnier found himself forced to appoint, still from the right-wing parties, a minister responsible for disability.
Macron defends the war economy whatever the cost
With Michel Barnier as Prime Minister, E. Macron intends to impose his political line. He will keep control of the key positions of Economy & Finances, as well as Defence & the Armies. This shows in that only one of the two previous ministers to have been reappointed is Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of the Armed Forces.
The former political trajectory of the government is set to continue therefore as if there had not been a new election; never mind that the election showed the people’s wish for change. At the World Defence and Security Exhibition(Eurosatory) on 23 June 2022, Macron clearly announced how France had entered “a war economy”[4]. On the part of [the leaders of] France and of all the EU countries that belong to Nato, this already announced the clear intention to prepare for, and get ready to face [what they call] a “high intensity warfare”[5].
There are different levels in the process of passing to ‘the war economy’. The first is to replenish more quickly the munition stocks and equipment with strong advice to the manufacturers ‘to produce more and faster’. This wants for increased financial resources not only to do so, but to source the raw materials and relocate companies that had gone abroad.
Macron’s views of autonomy and of economic sovereignty form part of this war economy; to no longer depend on foreign countries aims at China in particular, as in the supply of key components for the batteries of electric vehicles, for telephones, for cutting-edge technological equipment and artificial intelligence. These motives lie behind the present big projects of reindustrialization, with reimplantation of mines, and at whatever the costs to the health and safety of people, or to the preservation of the environment and biodiversity.
This raises the question of who decides in France? The capitalist system is subject to strong tensions which, in a context of war escalation, pushes capitalism to accelerate its need for armaments and its readiness. What decides is not the ballot box, but the army and the multinationals, like those in the large defence corporations, Airbus Group, Dassault Aviation, Naval Group, Thales, MBDA, Nexter, Arquus, Safran. And ‘France’ must absolutely keep its 3rd place in the world league of the arms exporting countries.
All these objectives, economic militarisation included, form part of what the heads of states and governments committed to, at the 10 July NATO Summit in Washington, for the 75th anniversary of the organisation. All the member countries are to prepare for war to “safeguard peace” and defend “every square centimetre of the Alliance’s territory”; demonstrating in this way their collective engagement to be acting in NATO’s interests, even if against those of their own countries, and without so much as a discussion with the citizens. NATO is also at war against those who oppose the imperialist international order. This NATO summit made the point when it named Russia and China the “systemic enemies”, Iran included, along with Belarus, North Korea and others in Africa and the Middle East in rupture with the “values of the West”, not to forget the various protest movements that endanger the “security order”.
The war economy in France stands at the core of any new policy. It is going to be key to the budget discussions. NATO is at the centre of the misappropriation of the public funds that go for war. It does it through the obligation of each NATO member to spend more than 2% of GDP on defence, plus participation in cross-border exercises. As far as France is concerned, the increase it must now grant to has already been agreed through the Military Programming Act (LPM) 2024-2030[6]. The latter sets out that 413 billion Euros must be spent on defence[7]over the seven coming years for the purpose of transforming the armies. Be sure that there will be no debate regarding this subject at the National Assembly!
The European Union is an essential component of NATO. Of the 27 EU States, the vast majority (23) is in NATO, and as reckless and ‘war ready’ against Russia as the US itself. They show this by falling over themselves in feats of cooperation for full and complete support to Ukraine “because Russia must not be allowed to win in any way, whatsoever”. In this context, NATO uses every possible form of disinformation and false argument. It gets the dissenting voices repressed. Those who criticise the warmongers are classed as ‘terrorists’.
A capitalist system on the-end-of-life: an opportunity for the left
The world situation demonstrates that, to maintain its economy and its structure, the capitalist system has no choice but to get ready for war. It faces its challenges by preparing for a new global confrontation, with the use of nuclear weapons included, if constrained. It objects to the advance of anti-imperialist movements in the world, the dollar questioned as the currency for international trade, a multipolar world that puts people at the heart of the transformation of society – everything that calls out the capitalist values of individual freedom, democracy, the rule of law.
It is important in the current situation that a debate has taken place in the left about the international positions of the NFP, and whose program raises real questions. In the chapter The Urgency of Peace, support is offered to the sending of arms to Ukraine. This is done without explaining the reasons for Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine. The document stands by a policy “to guarantee the preservation of our environment, the demilitarization and decontamination of space”. But imperialism has demonstrated, as in the case of Israel and Palestine, that this stage of advocacy is largely past, and that the battle for the environment is in constant regression.
It is true that the NFP program is a consensus between opposing positions in the diversity of the left components. It is clear and visible however that the international issues are not defined in class terms, or with the system-against-system view that gives the understanding that one is heading ineluctably towards the third world war. The document makes no mention of ‘France out of NATO’ – an essential demand, so important today, and which appears in the programs of the LFI (Mélanchon) and of the Communist Party.
The capitalist system is in an advanced stage of decay. The so-called improvements in Macron’s economic policies – so praised by the MEDEF in terms of growth and jobs – is a great hoax. The press reported record numbers of bankruptcies in July this year. For the first time, we are not dealing with just small businesses, but medium-sized ones, with the roll out of new layoffs throughout the country.
The NFP and all the parties and movements fighting to transform society must use this weakness of the system to create a new balance of power. Lamenting the democratic farces of Macron and his government is insufficient. We must extend the dynamic created by the NFP in the elections to press forward with the economic, social and environmental measures wanted by the left, to lay the foundations of the 6th Republic[8]: for the mobilization of the left parties, the trade unions, the workers in the factories and businesses; for the continued mobilization of the citizens’ associations and of all the citizens against the far-right ideas.
This cannot be done with compromise with Macron and the bourgeoisie, nor even through parliamentary democracy which has become obsolete. The place of the left and of the Front NFP is clearly not in this government, but in the daily struggles – to create a counter-balance to the power of the National Assembly, against the dictatorship of finance capital – to build a dynamic capable of involving the maximum number of citizens, and impose through the means of struggle the anti-capitalist measures that permit a radical transformation of society.
The Posadists, 30 September 2024
Feature image: The strike day of 1 October 2024 in Paris at the call of the Trade Unions[9]
[1] The Republican Party is not the same as Les Républicains. The Republican Party was a liberal conservative political party in France founded in 1977. It replaced the National Federation of the Independent Republicans that was founded in 1966. It was created by the then-President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
[2] The new government led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier will have to rely on the far-right National Rally in key votes like the 2025 budget, or the seven-year debt reduction plan required by EU rules.
[3] See: https://www.euronews.com/business/2023/10/03/3-trillion-is-frances-debt-out-of-control
[4] “A war economy that produces wealth”, https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/04/12/macron-advocates-a-war-economy-that-produces-wealth_6668228_7.html
[5] Some of the leading companies associated with the ‘high intensity warfare’ are A&P Group, AeroVironment, Aimpoint, AM General, Aselsan, Atos, Avon Protection, BAE Systems, and Bell Helicopters. Others, more recent companies, are listed by Globaldata.com as: Accenture, Amazon Web Services, Anduril Industries, ARES Shipyards, Aselsan, Baykar, Best Group, BlackSky Technology.
[6] This LPM was voted in the French National Assembly and Senate on 12-13 July 2023. The law provides for a record high military budget of 413.3 billion Euros over a 7 years period. The LPM is a French legal provision ultimately ruled by Nato, whose implementation is re-voted each year with the Budget. This military programming does not include the sums dedicated to military support for Ukraine. The last Budget acknowledged the end of large-scale operations in Africa.
[7] The figure of 413 billion in military expenditure is not an additional amount to the ongoing one, but the total to be reached in 2030. https://euro-sd.com/2024/01/articles/36190/examining-the-french-military-programming-act-2024-2030/
[8] Sixth Republic: In 1992, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Marie-Noëlle Lienemann and Julien Dray founded the Convention for the 6th Republic, a group within the Socialist Party (PS) advocating for constitutional reform. Mélenchon promoted the return to strong legislature by lessening the executive powers of the president. In the 2012 presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, having left the PS and formed the Left Party (PG), ran under the Left Front Platform which supported the formation of a Sixth Republic. In the 2022 presidential election, Mélanchon ran again as the LFI candidate, and once more supported the formation of a new republic. In 2024, the common platform of the Left, the NFP, is calling for a Constituent Assembly to prepare a new constitution, and establish a Sixth Republic. Additionally, the La France Insoumise (Mélanchon), the French Communist Party, the Ecologists and the Left Party have all have all supported a Sixth Republic – all independently of the NFP. (Wikipedia).
[9] The 1 October 2024 political strike day: Several unions including the CGT, FSU and Solidaires, Solidaires Sud Rail and CGT Chaminots took the lead. Other sectors of the working class joined in, public transport staff, teachers, public service employees. The aim was to protest the Macron administration and the formation of the new government. Demands included calls to reverse the retirement reforms. Requests were made to improve the quality of public services.
