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☆ Analysis: Macron’s gamble has kept the far right out of power, but plunged France into chaos
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-07 | by ( Jerome Taylor | Analysis Sakya Vandoorne | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The bloc brings together five different parties. Far-left France Unbowed and the Communist party has joined with the center-left parties, the socialists and the greens to form a New Popular Front. It’s equally hard to imagine how the current constellation would allow France to play an important role regarding Ukraine. The left has remained relatively quiet on Ukraine - different parties from the coalition have slightly different stances - France Unbowed is against what it calls “escalation” with Russia. Macron’s gamble may have prevented the far right from coming to power, but it could yet plunge the country into chaos.

Persons: CNN — “, Emmanuel Macron, France’s, Jordan Bardella, Macron, Le Pen, it’s Organizations: CNN, la Republique, NFP, France Unbowed, Communist, National Assembly Locations: la, Paris, France, Ukraine, Macron, Russia, Macron’s

☆ After France's right-wing surge, parties seen scrambling to block a National Rally win
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-01 | by ( Sophie Kiderlin | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Left-wing and centrist parties in France are scrambling to block the rival National Rally from winning the ongoing parliamentary election, according to analysts, after support for the far-right faction surged in the first electoral round on Sunday. Figures posted on Monday morning by the French Interior Ministry showed that the far-right National Rally (RN) and its allies had secured a combined 33.1% of votes, while the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance won 28% and French President Emmanual Macron's centrist Together bloc garnered 20%. The outcome of the first round of the election has led to discussions from left-wing and centrist politicians about how to minimize the amount of parliamentary seats secured by the RN in the second round of voting on July 7. "Our objective is clear: to prevent the National Rally from having an absolute majority in the second round, from dominating the National Assembly and from governing the country with the disastrous project that it has," French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, a Macron ally, wrote on social media platform X late on Sunday according to a CNBC translation. "I say it with the force that the moment demands to each of our voters: not a single vote must go to the National Rally," he added.

Persons: Danielle Simonnet, NUPES, LFI, Celine Verzeletti, Jean Luc Melenchon, Emmanual, Gabriel Attal Organizations: La France, National Rally, French Interior Ministry, Front, National Assembly, CNBC, National Locations: Paris, France

The most recent innovation has been tamer: People have banged pots whenever the president has appeared. Indeed, France’s labor unions — though representing a smaller share of the work force than elsewhere in Western Europe — have been united in their opposition, making them a redoubtable force. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who leads the left-wing coalition NUPES, has been a central figure in the parliamentary fight against Mr. Macron, nearly bringing down his government with a no-confidence vote in March. And yet it is not France’s left that has benefited from the popular rebellion. In a situation that seems tailor-made for a resurgence of the left, how is it that, for the moment at least, it is not just the right but the far right that has benefited?

[1/2] FILE PHOTO-French President Emmanuel Macron delivers his speech during the National Conference on Disability at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, April 26, 2023. "You talk a lot of nonsense everyday," the man told Macron, after the president, barely able to squeeze in an answer, said he should get his numbers right. Such direct confrontations, the president reckons, are essential to give people a cathartic release after weeks of anger directed at the government's pension bill and Macron himself. Before the pension reform protests, the government managed to pass legislation on issues such as nuclear energy and renewables with the help of both left-wing and right-wing lawmakers outside Macron's centrist alliance. That was apparent again this week, when his prime minister Elisabeth Borne was forced to give up on an immigration bill.

The president, the government and the majority," a senior MP in Macron's camp, Gilles Le Gendre, told Liberation newspaper. Another MP in Macron's camp, Patrick Vignal, bluntly urged the president to suspend the pension reform bill, which will raise the retirement age by two years to 64, given the anger it has triggered, and its deep unpopularity. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes 1 2 3 4 5While Borne said the administration would try in future to better involve citizens and unions in lawmaking, she gave no specifics, and both said they had devoted as much time to dialogue on the pension bill as possible. Other opposition MPs urged Macron to fire Borne, call snap elections and hold a referendum on the pension bill because of the widespread anger. Polls show a wide majority of French are opposed to the pension reform, as well as the government's decision to push the bill through parliament without a vote.

☆ France's Macron faces another test with parliamentary votes on Monday
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-19 | by ( Dominique Vidalon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

However, while Monday's votes may put on display anger at Macron's government, they are unlikely to bring it down. Opposition lawmakers filed two motions of no-confidence in parliament on Friday. Centrist group Liot proposed a multiparty no-confidence motion, which was co-signed by the far-left Nupes alliance. Hours later, France's far-right National Rally party, which has 88 National Assembly members, also filed a no-confidence motion. None of them had sponsored the first no-confidence motion filed on Friday.

☆ France's President Macron overrides parliament to pass retirement age bill
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Alain Jocard | Afp | Getty ImagesFrench President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday resorted to using special constitutional powers to push his plan to raise the retirement age to 64 from 62 through the lower house of parliament. The plans were passed in France's Senate on Thursday morning but had been due for a vote in the National Assembly (the lower house), where its approval was not guaranteed. Instead, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced to the assembly that the government would trigger Article 49.3 of the French constitution. Macron's Renaissance party argues reform of the pension system is necessary to sustain it long into the future. Household waste containers and rubbish dumps continue to pile up on the pavements of Paris streets on 14 March 2023 since garbage collectors went on strike against the French government's pension reform bill on 6 March 2023.

☆ France's Macron faces third round of pension reform strikes
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] A member of CFDT labour union prepares placards on the eve of the third day of national strike and protests in France against French government's pension reform plan, in Nice, France, February 6, 2023. "Our pension system is structurally in deficit," Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt told parliament on Monday afternoon as lawmakers began debating the bill. The government says the reform will allow gross savings of over 17 billion euros ($18 billion) per year by 2030. Conservative opponents, whose support Macron needs for a working majority in the National Assembly, want concessions for those who start working young. "The reform will never be accepted if the most wealthy don't contribute," former Socialist president Francois Hollande told BFM TV.

The French will have to work two years longer to age 64 before retiring, if the reform, announced on Tuesday, is adopted by parliament. They will also need to work longer to get a full pension. "I don't understand the principle of making people work longer when there are lots of young people looking for work." Unions will in any case get the support of the left-wing Nupes coalition in parliament, which urged workers to protest on Jan. 19. Under its plan, the retirement age will be raised by three months per year from September, reaching the target age of 64 in 2030.

[1/5] A French toreador apprentice of the Arles bullfighting school practices before a bullfight show at the Monumental de Gimeaux arena in Arles, France, November 20, 2022. "Corrida is a tradition, an art, a dance with the bull," said Baptiste, one of about a dozen students who learn to wave the traditional red muleta cloth in front of bulls in the Arles bullfighting school. At the weekend, pro and anti ban protesters marched in several southern France cities where corrida is still allowed. For Caron, exceptions that allow bullfighting in some parts of France and have under a thousand bulls killed per year, should be scrapped. "Since (bullfighting) exists, there are people who have tried to ban it, " said Yves Lebas, president of the Arles bullfighting school.

☆ Grégoire de Fournas: French parliamentary session halted by lawmaker's shout "Go back to Africa"
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Xiaofei Xu | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

A rightwing French lawmaker has caused uproar by shouting “Go back to Africa” during a Black lawmaker’s comments at a parliamentary session broadcast to the public on Thursday. Grégoire de Fournas, parliamentary representative from the National Rally (RN) party, interrupted Carlos Martens Bilongo, a representative from the far-left party France Unbowed (LFI) during a session of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament. De Fournas interrupted, shouting “go back to Africa.”Chaos immediately ensued in the chamber, leading Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly, to temporarily suspend the session. Bilongo and his party have described the shout as a racist personal attack, though de Fournas’ party has argued that the interjection was actually intended for the migrants under discussion. Mathilde Panot, leader of the far-left France Unbowed group at the National Assembly, has demanded that de Fournas face the toughest punishment for a French lawmaker — expulsion.

☆ Macron’s government decides to pass budget without vote
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron's government said Wednesday it would use a special constitutional power to force the bill for next year's budget through the National Assembly without a vote. Opposition lawmakers could call a no-confidence vote to protest the move, which some have denounced as undemocratic. A no-confidence vote is unlikely to pass despite opposition to the government's move because it would need the approval of at least 289 lawmakers, or half the seats in the lower house of France's Parliament. If some groups of lawmakers abstain while Macron's allies vote no, the threshold cannot be reached. In July, lawmakers failed to pass a no-confidence motion requested by the Nupes to symbolically mark its opposition to Macron's policies.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of French far-left opposition party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), and leader of the New Ecologic and Social People's Union (NUPES), takes part in a protest against soaring inflation and what they call a lack of government action to fight climate change, in Paris, France October 16, 2022. REUTERS/Stephane MahePARIS, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Thousands of people took to the streets of Paris on Sunday to protest against soaring prices as weeks of strikes for higher wages at oil refineries spurred demands for a general strike. The leader of hard-left party La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), Jean-Luc Melenchon, marched alongside this year's Nobel Prize winner for Literature, Annie Ernaux. Budget Minister Gabriel Attal said the left-wing coalition was attempting to exploit the current situation, marked by ongoing strikes at French utility EDF's nuclear plants and at French oil refineries. "Today's march is a march of supporters who want to block the country," he said on French radio station Europe 1.

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