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Post by Admin on Jun 20, 2022 21:20:29 GMT
France's centrist government is desperately trying to avoid political paralysis after it lost its majority in the National Assembly. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has spoken of an unprecedented situation and commentators have warned of France becoming ungovernable. President Emmanuel Macron's team now face two powerful opposition groups. And neither Jean-Luc Mélenchon's left-green alliance nor Marine Le Pen's far right are keen to work with him. Mr Macron will also have to replace three ministers who lost their seats in Sunday's vote, and the prime minister's future looks increasingly under threat. The president's allies came out in force after Sunday's election setback, widely described by commentators as a slap in the face from voters. The aim is to find a "working majority", either a coalition or by forging alliances with other MPs on a case-by-case basis. Minority governments are a rarity in France, and even when there was one in 1988 under President François Mitterrand, he was only 11 seats short of an outright majority. The ruling Ensemble alliance is 44 seats shy of the working majority so it will need to find support from mainstream MPs from both the left and right. Mr Véran believes the government will be able to attract support from other political groups to get important reforms passed, particularly when it comes to the cost of living: "I can't for a second imagine that a majority cannot emerge in the coming weeks on the spending power law." President Macron has laid out a series of plans to tackle the spiralling cost of living, including food vouchers and enhanced benefits. Another big reform is gradually raising the retirement age from 62-65, which has proved unpopular with much of the electorate.
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Post by Admin on Jul 4, 2022 22:07:16 GMT
Emmanuel Macron has reshuffled his government for the second time in six weeks after losing his parliamentary majority in elections in June.
The shake-up brought the former health minister Olivier Véran, who nursed France through the Covid crisis, back into the French president’s inner circle in the high-profile role of government spokesperson.
The former equality minister Marlène Schiappa, who oversaw the “citizenship” portfolio at the interior ministry before the election but was dropped in the first reshuffle, was also brought back into government as secretary of state in charge of “social and solidarity economy and associative life”.
Macron and the prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, who was appointed on 16 May, were forced to reconsider their ministerial team after the parliamentary elections a fortnight ago robbed the president’s newly named Renaissance party of its hold on the Assemblée Nationale.
Damien Abad, recently named solidarityminister with responsibility for disabled people, lost his post after being placed under investigation for an allegation of rape, which he denies.
Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, a gynaecologist who has been accused of “rape and/or gynaecological violence” by several former patients, lost her post as secretary of state in charge of development. She denies the allegations against her.
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Post by Admin on Apr 5, 2023 17:46:43 GMT
French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are in China for a three-day visit where they'll meet with President Xi Jinping and other top Chinese officials.
Their joint trip is the latest in a noticeable push from European leaders to engage with China, which has seen German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez paying visits in recent months.
Mr Macron and Ms von der Leyenwill be pressing Mr Xi on taking further steps to halt the Ukraine war, while also finessing the increasingly fraught trade relationship between the European Union and China, its biggest trading partner.
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Post by Admin on Apr 23, 2023 20:29:06 GMT
Continued Anger At Macron's Pension Reforms Fuels Further Protests In France | France Protest 2023
Unions of the national rail company SNCF call for a "day of expression of railway anger", following months of strike action and a failed opposition to pension reforms. They will march from the Gare de l'Est station to an unidentified location in Paris.
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Post by Admin on Dec 20, 2023 18:35:01 GMT
[PARIS = Makiko Yanada] On the 19th, the French National Assembly (Lower House, 577 members) passed with a majority vote a bill to tighten regulations on illegal immigration. As the far-right party ``Run National'' (RN) suddenly came out in favor of the bill, there was a series of protests from the centrist ruling party led by President Macron, resulting in a serious rift between the government and the ruling party.
The bill was originally designed to facilitate the deportation of foreigners who committed crimes, while also regularizing illegal immigrants working in fields with a labor shortage to a certain extent, and narrowing down the number of immigrants who would stay.
Deliberations in the National Assembly began this month, but in addition to the RN, the center-right Republican Party opposed the bill, calling for stricter regulations, and the left, which is more tolerant of immigration, also opposed it.
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