The new French prime minister has not yet revealed his government programme, but he promises that it will not be “just right-wing”. “I come from below,” he says, referring to his origins.
France’s new conservative prime minister, Michel Barnier, said on Sunday that his policy “will not be just right-wing”, that he intends to “listen to everyone” and that he has learned “the culture of compromise” throughout his career.
In several interviews published in the newspapers La Tribune and Le Journal du Dimanche, cited by the Efe agency, Barnier tries to give an image of openness and attention to the French people who are disinterested in politics, who “are fed up with everything being decided from above.”
“I come from below, there is no ambiguity on this issue,” he stressed, referring to the fact that his mother was an “associative activist” and his father was a “small businessman.”
Although he does not specifically detail his political programme in these interviews, he says that he intends to embody “a hope for France” and “raise the individual and collective horizon of France”.
On what his relationship will be like with President Emmanuel Macron, who chose him to form a government, the Prime Minister says that he has not told him what his programme will be. “The President made things clear to me. He gives me the freedom to form a government and define my political line. I have a lot of freedom,” he said.
This is a response to those, especially on the left, who believe that Macron chose this veteran politician (73 years old) member of the Republican Party (which obtained 6% in the early elections of June and July) because he will pursue policies of continuity.
The Elysée Palace also rejects the criticism, arguing that Macron was guided solely by the constitutional imperative to seek a prime minister who would guarantee political stability, i.e. a person who would not be quickly dismissed by a vote of no confidence.
Michel Barnier is continuing his consultations and interviews on Sunday to form his government, in particular with Édouard Phillipe, Macron’s prime minister between May 2017 and July 2020.
When forming his government, one of the first challenges will be to prepare the General State Budget for 2025, before October 1, in a context of great difficulty due to the increase in the public deficit to worrying levels.
At the end of July, the European Commission opened an Excessive Deficit Procedure for France, after Paris exceeded the 5.5% deficit, and the trend is set to continue, unless there are cuts or tax increases.
The president of the French Court of Auditors, former European Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, has called on the Prime Minister to act “swiftly and decisively against the deficit”, because “if nothing changes, France will reach a deficit of 5.6% of GDP this year, instead of the 5.1% expected, and 6.2% in 2025”. The Ministry of Finance has already asked Brussels for more time to present a deficit reduction programme, which must be submitted by 20 September.
Source: Observadora
