01 January 2025

NEUTRALIZE EXTREMES | Le Monde/ Opinion French Politics

As we head into the new year, none of the symptoms of the profound political crisis that marked 2024 are on track to get better.

The new prime minister's low popularity, his inability to broaden the narrow base of support established by his predecessor, the attacks he was immediately subjected to because he traveled to his town of Pau instead of catastrophe-stricken Mayotte or because his method of communication has been deemed obsolete:

All tend to lend credence to the idea that politics in France has become a bloodthirsty game.

'France getting out of its political crisis implies neutralizing the extremes'

Le Monde

a day ago

France getting out of its political crisis implies neutralizing the extremes '

Published today at 4:00 am (Paris)

While the radical left LFI and far-right RN parties exert increasing pressure on the whole system, the Socialists need to free themselves from LFI's positions on the 2025 budget vote, explains Le Monde columnist Françoise Fressoz.

The target is no longer exclusively President Emmanuel Macron, who was considerably weakened by the dissolution of June 2024. It takes the face and form of his prime ministers, who, as soon as they are appointed, become the subjects of spiteful speculation. After Michel Barnier, how many weeks does the current prime minister, François Bayrou, have left without being shot down? The media machine, fueled by social media, provides the haunting background music to this infernal cycle of collective dissatisfaction, fueled by repeated controversies about anything and everything – except the essential issues.

Sterile negotiations

In the December 29 issue of La Tribune Dimanche, the new economy minister, Eric Lombard, a reformist left-wing figure appreciated in economic circles, called for dialogue with the political parties represented in the Assemblée Nationale and Sénat.

Lombard reminded them that a budget must still be adopted, and that the aim would be to reduce the public deficit from 6% of GDP, in 2024, to just over 5 % in 2025, by favoring spending cuts over tax increases – the scale of which he hopes to limit. . .

BBC

After France's election shock comes the real power struggle

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Emmanuel Macron used his New Year's address to the French people to admit that his decision to dissolve parliament and call snap elections, casting France into a political crisis, backfired.