French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday (4) announced a government reform that does not involve major changes to face a second term in which he will struggle to implement his reformist and liberal agenda after losing his absolute majority in Parliament.
One executive adviser said that Macron “reached out to the opposition four times to put all options on the table. They said no.”
With 250 deputies, 39 less than required for an absolute majority, Macron did not announce fundamental changes, but strengthened the weight of his allies. The most prominent announcement is not the arrival of new ministers, but the departure of one of the three previous cabinet members accused of rape.
Faced with increasing pressure, the centrist president dismissed Damien Abad as Minister for Solidarity, Autonomy and People with Disabilities and replaced him with Jean-Christophe Combe, executive director of the French Red Cross.
Abad’s appointment to Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne’s first cabinet on May 20 was touted as a right-wing success, but sexual assault allegations emerged a few days later, affecting the executive branch.
Last week, a French court launched an investigation into the attempted rape, which Abad denied. Two other members of Borne’s government remain in office, although they are also targets of rape allegations.
Earlier this year, the Prosecutor’s Office requested that a rape complaint against Gérald Darmanin, Minister of the Interior, who now holds the Overseas portfolio, be shelved. Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, Minister of State for Development, Francophonie and International Associations, also denies rape allegations against her while practicing her profession as a gynecologist.
Beaune to Boone
The most prominent entry into government is that of Laurence Boone, now chief economist of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the new Minister of State for European Affairs.
Europan’s predecessor, Clément Beaune, who has been Macron’s “Mr. Europa” since he took power in 2017, will henceforth become Minister of Transport after barely winning a seat in the legislature in June.
According to an unwritten rule, ministers vying for a seat in Parliament and failing to win the seat must leave the Executive. Three others failed, including Macron’s close friend Amélie de Montchalin and Brigitte Bourguignon.
The current Regional Communities Minister Delegate, Christophe Béchu, will take on one of the key portfolios, the Ecological Transition, in the middle of the seventh wave, replacing Amélie de Montchalin, and doctor François Braun will take on the Ministry of Health replacing Brigitte Bourguignon. infectiousness. covid-19 in france.
The ministerial reform effectively represents the start of the centrist president’s second term, two days before the prime minister’s general policy speech, and ends the period of uncertainty since his re-election on April 24.
The new government has not convinced either the extreme right or the radical left, the main opposition groups in the Parliament (the Chamber of Deputies) and the party the government wants to attract: the Republicans (on the right).
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said, “Those who fail stay in office. The president is again ignoring the decision at the ballot boxes and the French will follow a different policy.”
Although the opposition hoped that Borne would give a vote of confidence after his speech, the large number of ministers in the government shows that this customary practice should not be. The decision corresponds to the cabinet meeting this Monday.
Borne has already started negotiations with the opposition on the first bill, a package of measures to protect purchasing power that the government hopes to pass between late July and early August.
The rise in fuel and food prices, in particular, caused by the war in Ukraine, is the main concern of the French and a warning sign for Macron, whose first term was marked by mass social protests.
source: Noticias
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