Macron Summons a Third Premier To Tame France’s Parliament

Will the third prime minister prove the charm for the embattled French president, Emmanuel Macron? Sébastien Lecornu is the latest choice since last year’s inconclusive legislative elections to enter the parliamentary Thunderdome. He follows into the arena Monsieur Macron’s previous premiers, Michel Barnier and Francois Bayrou, neither of whom could forge a working majority in the divided Assemblée Nationale. Will Mr. Lecornu have better luck?More to the point, peut-être, why should Americans fret over the fate of the fractious French? The issues confronting Paris are not as dissimilar as one might think. France, too, faces a spiraling national debt without the political will to make the spending cuts needed to balance the budget. French attempts to boost its defense spending are foiled by the excessive national debt. Years of unchecked migration are raising fears of a national crisis of identité.More broadly La Belle France, by hitching its wagon to the European Superstate, has subsumed its nationhood — a source of strength for centuries — and even its once-proud currency, the franc, to the leftist bureaucrats of the European Union and the euro. It’s testament to that error that Monsieur Macron, upon acceding to office in 2017, played not “La Marseillaise” but the EU’s anthem, the Teutonic “Ode to Joy,” at his victory rally.Monsieur Macron arguably aggravated all these problems last year when he ordered snap legislative elections. Far from vindicating his leadership, the results shrank his party’s bloc in parliament. Partly as a result of France’s contorted electoral process, the rightists of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally earned 37 percent of votes, yet won but 25 percent of seats. The leftist New Popular Front, meanwhile, won 26 percent of voters, but 33 percent of seats. With no clear majority in parliament, it’s little wonder that Messrs. Barnier and Bayrou were unhorsed by the restive lawmakers. It was to Mr. Bayrou’s credit that he forced his own premiership to its crisis by reminding the solons that the surging debt was an “immediate danger” to French sovereignty. Yet his refusal to embrace supply-side measures to get the economy moving, and his scheme to tax high-earners, suggested a lack of vision.Both Messrs. Barnier and Bayrou fell, ultimately, because they ran afoul of Madame Le Pen’s bloc in parliament. The rightist leader’s displeasure was triggered, in part, because both premiers proposed that France needed to trim its bloated welfare state as part of an economic reform agenda. That was a signal, we reported, that “in France, it seems, the right is as bad as the left on welfare reform.” Yet Madame Le Pen has it right, at least, on the EU.Faced with an, in effect, hung parliament, it’s to Monsieur Macron’s credit that he has so far refrained from yielding to the far left’s demands that he name a prime minister from the Marxist midst. Enter Monsieur Lecornu, 39, a loyal ally of the president and former defense minister who began his career on the right but has drifted toward the center. The Times calls the choice of Mr. Lecornu “one of comfort” for Monsieur Macron.Madame Le Pen says she and her rightists would give the new premier a fair chance. The left’s vituperation over the appointment, which was denounced as a “provocation,” could be a good early sign for Mr. Lecornu’s tenure. Yet the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon could have a point when he warns that a new premier will not solve France’s problems, which stem from the top. He avers: “Only the departure of Macron himself can put an end to this sad comedy.”

Macron Summons a Third Premier To Tame France’s Parliament

Macron Summons a Third Premier To Tame France’s Parliament

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