Mass unrest swept France on Saturday over President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to appoint conservative politician Michel Barnier as prime minister, rejecting the choice of the largest faction in parliament.
Demonstrators called for Macron’s resignation, accusing him of a “power grab” and “stealing the election.”
Last month, the French leader rejected the New Popular Front (NFP) alliance’s candidate Lucie Castets for the post, despite the coalition winning the largest number of seats in the July parliamentary election.
On Wednesday, Macron nominated as prime minister Michel Barnier – a member of the center-right The Republicans (LR) party and the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator – replacing Gabriel Attal, who resigned after the election.
Barnier’s LR party came fourth in the legislative ballot, securing 48 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly.
The Interior Ministry said 110,000 people took part in Saturday’s nationwide demonstrations, including 26,000 in Paris. Mathilde Panot of the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party wrote on X that 160,000 protesters took to the streets of Paris alone, while over 300,000 protested across France.
Rallies also took place in Lyon, Nantes, Nice, Marseille, Rennes, and other major cities.
Crowds in Paris were seen marching with banners reading: “Democracy annulled, Macron dismissed” and “Stop the Macron coup!” as they headed from the Bastille to the Place de la Nation on the eastern side of the city.
“We are fed up with Macron!” one protester said. “We all mobilized to vote for the NFP for very good reasons. We chose the ballot box route because we were always led to believe that it was the best way to express our demands, we voted and we were not heard.”
“If we do not react today, tomorrow France will wake up in the hands of a dictatorship,” another claimed.
Some accused Macron of breaking the tradition of appointing the prime minister from the largest party and doing “just what he wanted.” “They have betrayed us. The NFP won the elections but Macron does not give a damn. But we are going to let him know that the streets are going to answer him fiercely,” an activist said.
The Saturday protests were organized by LFI party, which is a part of the NFP alliance along with the Socialists, Communists, and Greens.
“Emmanuel Macron could have named Lucie Castets prime minister. He didn’t… because we intended to apply our program,” LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said, addressing the protesters.
Macron called the snap election after his centrist Ensemble faction performed poorly in the European parliamentary vote. Although the bloc came second in the French ballot, the president has the sole power to name the prime minister. Macron has claimed that the new appointment marks the beginning of a new “political era” in France.