Marine Le Pen has called for new parliamentary elections to break the deadlock
President Macron is a childish attention-seeker who has transformed France into “the sick man of Europe”, Marine Le Pen declared on Sunday as she demanded fresh elections.
The National Rally leader launched her attack on the president just hours before François Bayrou, Macron’s struggling prime minister, was anticipated to fall in a parliamentary confidence vote on Monday, according to The Times.
This would mark him as the second government chief to be ousted in under 12 months, following Michel Barnier, the former EU Brexit negotiator, who was forced from office in December, reports the Express.
Bayrou accepted his destiny
With opposition parties across the board and even some MPs from his own centre-right coalition poised to vote him down, Bayrou seemed to have accepted his inevitable downfall.
“There are worse things in life than to be at the head of a government and that the government is overthrown,” the 74 year old centrist remarked to Brut, a news platform.
Bayrou’s likely exit will thrust Macron into the spotlight of a crisis that detractors claim he has orchestrated himself.
His shocking choice last year to trigger snap parliamentary elections has created gridlock in the National Assembly and such chaos that Alain Duhamel, a respected political observer, warned the nation was confronting not merely political upheaval but a “crisis of regime and a crisis of society”.
Socialist PM replacement on cards Macron’s inner circle have been briefing journalists that he might ditch Bayrou in favour of a Socialist prime minister who could forge a partnership between the left and centre.
Olivier Faure, the Socialist party’s first secretary, has declared himself “available” for the role.
Such a move would mean abandoning the low-tax, pro-business policies Macron has championed since taking power in 2017.
However, without a parliamentary majority, he may have little choice but to swallow his pride.
Le Pen, 57, who was met by enthusiastic supporters in her northern France constituency on Sunday, vowed to topple any prime minister who refused to deliver Rally policies.
France facing ‘anger and despair’
Instead, she demanded fresh parliamentary elections to end the stalemate which she claimed was fuelling voter “anger and despair” whilst damaging business confidence and tarnishing France’s global reputation.
Slamming Macron and “all those who have served him”, she declared: “Today, through their fault, France is the sick man of Europe.”
Whilst Bayrou was correct to address the nation’s “intolerable” debt crisis, his proposed remedies were misguided, she argued.
Le Pen confirmed that the Rally would side with left-wing parties in opposing him. She called for immigration restrictions, which she claimed would slash at least €20 billion annually, reductions in France’s net yearly €7 billion EU budget contribution, an “FBI of fraud” to expose tax and benefit cheats, and scrapping “toxic” government schemes, including renewable energy investment.
Bardella tipped for top job
Le Pen blamed the nation’s economic woes on the political turmoil triggered by the “whims of a puerile president in need of attention”.
The Rally chief revealed that Jordan Bardella, the party’s “pugnacious and determined” 29 year old chairman, would become prime minister if it secured parliamentary victory.
Bardella believed he was set to land the role last year after the Rally topped the first round of voting in June, but came up short when rivals united in the second round.
Following her corruption conviction last year, Le Pen was banned from seeking office and couldn’t stand in parliamentary contests herself.
Unless she successfully challenges the verdict on appeal next year, Le Pen will also be prevented from pursuing the presidency, despite surveys showing her ahead.
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