Sixty days after the French legislative elections (30 June/7 July), President Emmanuel Macron has appointed former minister and former European Commissioner Michel Barnier, 73, as Prime Minister of France. Although the president has no legal limit on the time he can take to elect him – and in this case he had the excuse of the Olympic Games – nor any conditions other than his parliamentary viability, this appointment has raised serious concerns, not only in France but in much of Europe, both because of its delay and its political connotations.
Macron dissolved the National Assembly and called legislative elections on June 9, following the victory of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) in the European elections that ended that day, hoping to provoke a reaction from the electorate. He was supposed to be worried about the result. He got it half-heartedly. Thanks to the withdrawal of candidates who came third in the first round in 214 constituencies – almost all of them left-wing – the RN ultimately came in third with 142 seats, behind the winner, the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP) – led by Jen-Luc Melenchón’s La Francia Insumisa – with 193 votes, and the governing coalition Ensemble pour la République, led by Macron’s party, Renaissance (RE), with 166 votes.
