Mélenchon announces that they will vote in favour of the motion of censure against Macron and “challenges” the far right to do the same
Thousands of people have supported the 150 demonstrations throughout France, in Paris, Strasbourg, Lyon, Nantes or Bordeaux, to protest the appointment of the conservative Michel Barnier as prime minister despite the victory of the left in the last legislative elections.
Numerous personalities from the New Popular Front coalition participated in the demonstration, including its most visible figure, the leader of La France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has announced that his party will support the motion of censure presented against President Emmanuel Macron for the appointment of Barnier.
“Whatever happens, we will vote in favour of the censure of such a government in the National Assembly,” Mélenchon promised in a speech during the demonstration in Paris called to denounce Macron’s “anti-democratic coup.”
“And we challenge all the charlatans who have come to cajole them not to vote in favour of this censure. And especially those who call themselves representatives of the rejection of the system and who are in reality its most constant life insurance. I am talking about the National Rally,” he added. For Mélenchon, “there is nothing above the sovereign people, no monarch, no law other than that which emanates from the people,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, the new prime minister held his first official act after his appointment at the Necker Hospital, a centre specialising in paediatrics located in the French capital to meet with health professionals.
Youth organisations such as the Union of Students and the Union of Secondary Schools have called for protests across the country with the support of La France Insoumise, environmentalists, the Communist Party, the New Anticapitalist Party and Génération·s, that is, the entire New Popular Front except the Socialist Party. Several trade unions and civil organisations such as Attac have also joined in.
“The appointment of Michel Barnier is a double denial of the result of the elections (…). On Saturday 7 September, let us mobilise for democracy and for our dignity,” appealed the coordinator of La France Insoumise, Manuel Bompard.
“While the New Popular Front won first place in the elections, Michel Barnier’s party won 6.5 percent in the legislative elections and has 40 deputies in the National Assembly (…). This denial of democracy is unbearable. Let us condemn this government,” he added.
