Over 100,000 Protest in France Against New Prime Minister

AFP/APP

Paris: More than 100,000 left-wing demonstrators rallied across France on Saturday to protest against the nomination of the centre-right Michel Barnier as prime minister and denounce President Emmanuel Macron’s “power grab”.

The interior ministry said 110,000 people took to the streets nationwide, including 26,000 in Paris, while one leading left-winger put the turnout across France at 300,000.

Rallies took place in cities across France, including Nantes in the west, Nice and Marseille in the south, and Strasbourg in the east.

Macron on Thursday appointed Barnier, a 73-year-old former foreign minister who acted as the European Union’s Brexit negotiator, as prime minister, seeking to move forward after snap elections in which his centrist alliance came second.

Barnier said on Friday that he was open to naming ministers of all political stripes, including “people from the left.”

But a left-wing coalition, which emerged as France’s largest political bloc after the June-July elections, although short of an overall majority, has denounced Macron’s appointment of Barnier.

The alliance wanted Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist, to become prime minister, but Macron quashed that idea, arguing that she would not survive a confidence vote in the hung parliament.

On Saturday, many demonstrators directed their anger at Macron, 46, and some called on him to resign.