French politics: "Michel Barnier in France is fairly popular"

CGTN Europe

CGTN Europe interviewed Anne-Élisabeth Moutet, a French journalist and commentator.

Transcript

00:00Nous allons vous emmener à la France maintenant, après des semaines de rassemblement politique.

00:04Paris a révélé un nouveau gouvernement.

00:06Le nouveau premier ministre Michel Barnier a mis en place un cabinet,

00:09en espérant attaquer un équilibre entre les droites et les centristes,

00:13pour essayer de trouver un soutien cross-parti dans un parlement plutôt fragmenté.

00:17En juin, le président centriste Emmanuel Macron a appelé une élection surprise,

00:22après son parti a suffi une grande défaite dans les élections de l'UE.

00:27Anne-Elisabeth Moutet est une journaliste et commentatrice française.

00:57It was difficult to put together a cabinet because the drama did not stop

01:02when a prime minister was found and that what we ended up with

01:07is a combination of essentially central right characters

01:12and centrists from the Macron movement.

01:15You cannot even argue that if you add les républicains to the Macron partisans,

01:21you have a majority.

01:22So how long that lasts really now is hands on the hands of Marine Le Pen,

01:27who's been quietly sort of watching this saying nothing,

01:31because she figures that it's going to blow up sometime

01:35and then she will profit in one way or another.

01:37Now people outside France might be scratching their heads here

01:41because this long-awaited new line-up, led by, as you say,

01:45Prime Minister Michel Barnier, really does, doesn't it,

01:49mark a decisive move to the right,

01:52even though it was a left-wing alliance that won most of the parliamentary seats?

01:59It was a left-wing alliance, although it was an ad hoc left-wing alliance

02:06and Michel Barnier has tried to get members of every single party there

02:12except the former Trotskyite Jean-Luc Mélenchon,

02:15who only got 79 seats, which is 13% of the entire House,

02:20but who have been dictating everything because they are much more competent

02:23at this kind of sort of parliamentary maneuvering.

02:28But they've asked many socialists to take part and they have one,

02:33who is Didier Migaud, who is the Minister for Justice.

02:36It's a regalian post, as we say in France,

02:39as one of the main functions of state, justice, but they wanted more.

02:44At least, you know, this is what they're saying.

02:46It is also true that they've got some people from Les Républicains,

02:51but they have not the most contentious people from Les Républicains.

02:54They haven't really got the Sarkozy's former ministers.

02:57So they say this is, you know, they don't sort of go out and make statements about it,

03:02but what they're saying is, look, this is the most balanced government we could reach,

03:06considering the people who agreed to take part.

03:10The people they did not ask were the National Rally,

03:12even though the National Rally called the most votes, even in the second round.

03:1611% of the vote, they got 34% of the vote,

03:20so I think they did about as well as Kirsten.

03:23And they came last in the snap election.

03:28OK, well, some new faces then at the top,

03:31but some things remain the same, don't they?

03:34I'm thinking in particular about France's dire deficit.

03:38Presumably that's top of the in-tray.

03:42That is, and the question is what do they do about it?

03:45It's very interesting that they've appointed possibly the most interesting newcomer in French politics in some time,

03:51who's Antoine Armand.

03:52He is the 33-year-old finance minister.

03:55He is a technocrat, if you will.

03:58He is extremely bright.

04:00He identifies as Republican, Les Républicains,

04:05but he is quite willing to take strong measures, including some taxes.

04:13We don't know exactly what those taxes are going to be like,

04:16but essentially he has said, look, you cannot keep on telling people that you can solve problems

04:22without doing something that is not going to be popular.

04:26And his reputation is excellent.

04:28He is a completely new face,

04:30and quite honestly he's never been identified in political action.

04:34So he may have enemies within the Ministry of Finance,

04:37but he doesn't have that many in the political world yet.

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