FOR all apparent reasons the political cataclysm that has been reverberating France since the first round of presidential election on April 23 is now over, logically speaking that is.
The announcement by Prime Minister Edward Philippe last Wednesday of a new government has proven to be a tremor in itself as none of the nearly 40 ministers and state secretaries is a known figure — with the sole exception of former presidential candidate Bruno Le Maire. Half of these are women, a first in the French history.
The final round of legislative elections last Sunday confirmed beyond doubt that Emmanuel Macron’s becoming president of France at age 39 was more than a mere accident. His party won 301 of a total 577 seats in the National Assembly, thus freeing him from any obligation of making deals with the opposition or seeking the support of smaller parties, as erroneously forecast by the unanimity of political pundits.
The surprises still do not end here. Ever since the Fifth Republic was founded by General de Gaulle in 1958, power has remained in the hands of either traditional conservative or leftist parties. In last Sunday’s voting the Socialist party that had enjoyed parliamentary majority under President François Mitterrand in the 1980s, then again since 2012, was literally routed out with no more than 44 seats. The conservative Republican party saved its skin with 113 seats.
These statistics are head-spinning when you take into account the fact that Macron’s party was founded only a year ago and was officially baptised La République en Marche following his success in the second round of presidential vote on April 30 this year.
The list of unexpected jolts is not over yet. One of the ardent supporters of Macron was François Bayrou, the founder of MoDem party, who has been struggling to gain power, unsuccessfully as it is, for the past two decades.
Following the presidential election, and often to the chagrin of Macron, Bayrou let everyone understand that he was the natural choice for being the prime minister. But a scoop in a newspaper turned things upside down for him by revealing that as member of the National Assembly Bayrou had been employing people close to him on fictive jobs at taxpayer’s expense.
As a result, when the new cabinet was announced last Wednesday Bayrou was not on the list despite the fact that MoDem has 41 seats in the assembly. Other close Macron associates like Richard Ferrand, Marielle de Sarnez and Sylvie Goulard had to be left behind for similar reasons.
Only future will tell if Macron will prove to be a modern Napoleon for France as a number of experts are already forecasting. But to give him credit, ever since his election the young president has kept himself away from the media’s attention. “Things have to be changed fast and there’s plenty of hard work awaiting us,” he said.
Macron can also be given credit for distancing himself from a number of commitments that were for some unknown reasons ‘priorities’ to the former president François Hollande. One of these was his obsession with the Syrian regime and his diplomatic efforts as well as military initiatives to make President Bashar al-Assad leave.
“Whoever retains power in Syria is none of our business. We face the problem of terrorism in our own country and we will do everything we can to put an end to this while we shall continue being a society where individual freedoms and rights will be guaranteed,” he told journalists during his visit to Berlin last Thursday to attend the European Union conference.
While the familiar figures of French politics are left behind the scene, the average age of the newly elected National Assembly has dropped from 58 to 44 years. Another good sign.
The writer is a journalist based in Paris.
Published in Dawn, June 25th, 2017
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