Three months after French President Emmanuel Macron chose Prime Minister聽Michel Barnier from a party that lost the elections, his government has been brought down by a no-confidence vote put forward by the left.
The July elections resulted in a parliament split into three big blocs: the centre-right around Macron, the fascists of the Rassemblement National (RN), and left alliance Nouveau Front Populaire (New Popular Front, NFP) 鈥 which is dominated by the radical left France Insoumise (France in Revolt).
The left had more MPs than each of the other two blocs, but Macron鈥檚 main aim was to avoid a government with a radical program. He named Barnier from the traditional Right as PM, hoping the fascist MPs would give enough support for the government to survive (the French constitution does not allow new parliamentary elections until July).
The Barnier government has been dominated by accelerating austerity plans, aiming to slash public spending by a further 鈧60 billion (A$98.5 billion). Macron鈥檚 manoeuvres allowed the fascists of the RN to gain much respectability and establishment sympathy from their supporting role.
Barnier appointed hard-right anti-immigrant ministers, such as Bruno Retailleau, to appease the RN. His government continued to stoke Islamophobia, for example, confirming the ban on long Abaya dresses, which might look Muslim, from high schools. But early this month, the RN decided to vote for the no-confidence motion put forward by the left alliance.
Once he realised his government was likely to fall, Barnier tried desperately to talk MPs round, squealing about how Brussels would be so upset and how international bankers would punish France for this. Macron, meanwhile, was in Saudi Arabia on the day of the vote, modelling designer sunglasses and selling fighter jets.
Macron has been pretending to be above the storm: in recent months he has squeezed every last bit of sparkle he could from the Olympic Games and the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral, hoping that this will hide his role as a salesman for the grubby forces of profit.
A few voices on the left are saying it was a mistake to support a parliamentary motion that the fascists were also going to vote for. This is a dangerous error: since fascist parties are not honest or principled, such a position would leave us to be bounced around by their whims.
Of course, Macronist leaders in parliament this week were eager to pretend that the fascists and the radical left were now bosom buddies. But what actually happened was that the fascists were forced to vote for a no-confidence motion .
In his opening speech for the motion, the FI鈥檚 Eric Coquerel denounced the concessions made to the RN, insisted that taxing the rich has to be at the centre of politics, expressed his support for the strike movements starting up and called for Macron to be impeached.
The RN鈥檚 Marine Le Pen, in her speech immediately following, defended entrepreneurship, cutting taxes and attacking immigrants and opposed the impeachment of Macron.
The fall of Barnier is a victory for the left. The NFP, as the biggest group of MPs, should be allowed to form a government, and this is what the FI is demanding. The alliance has a and a compromise candidate for PM, Lucie Castets, ready to take office.
The day after the no-confidence vote, Macron made a solemn speech to the nation, which may go down in history as the emptiest speech of the century. He simply insisted that the far right and the left do not care about ordinary people, but that he does.
Macron is now faced with a choice of three options, since he refuses to resign. He could respect democracy and allow the left to form a government. He could name a new right-wing PM even more open to working with the fascists than the previous one was. Or he could try one more time to split the left alliance and draw some Socialist (SP) and Green Party MPs into a left-right joint government.
Fragile unity
The NFP is holding for the time being, but is fragile. The SP鈥檚 right wing is looking for a way out 鈥 the party鈥檚 national committee voted 38 to 33 in September to stay in the alliance. But polls show that a third of SP voters did not want Barnier to fall, and 5 of their 62 MPs refused to vote him down, so the party鈥檚 right feels they have room to manoeuvre.
Continuing the huge smear campaign against the FI and its leader Jean Luc M茅lenchon, accusing FI members of being antisemitic and supporters of terrorism, is an important part of their tactics, and this campaign is cheerfully supported by most of the media.
In the Green Party and in Communist Party there are also groupings unhappy with the radicalism of the NFP鈥檚 compromise program and fearful that the FI will continue to grow in size and influence. They are looking for ways of moving rightward.
Yannick Jadot, one of the most influential Green leaders, announced on national radio on December 5 that he did not want Macron to resign. Unwilling to openly criticise the left program, these groups are saying that another prime ministerial candidate, less opposed to Macron than Castets is, would be a good move.
But these manoeuvres are very unlikely to produce a viable left-right government any time soon.
And the centre of gravity of the left remains the FI. In recent months, its MPs have been aiming to keep the major issues concerning working people in debate.
For example, they presented a bill to reverse last year鈥檚 raising of the standard retirement age 鈥 in response, Macron鈥檚 MPs had to resort to obstructive tactics to prevent a vote taking place.
Another bill would have abolished the crime of 鈥渕aking statements in support of terrorism鈥 an offence, which has been mostly used against environmental activists, pro-Palestine leaders and trade unionists.
On the ground, some claim there are now more than 400,000 people in local FI action groups. This is probably an exaggeration, but it is certainly the biggest activist network for decades.
It is a left reformist grouping, so much emphasis is placed on elections, but FI action groups are very much involved in the movement against the genocide in Gaza. Each local group has a large amount of autonomy.
FI activities near me include mobilising in support of homeless migrant groups occupying buildings for shelter, organising a 鈥淜now your rights鈥 caravan to tour housing estates, collecting for foodbanks and so on.
In a nearby town, FI groups initiated leafleting of schools in order to marginalise a far-right group of 鈥渧igilant parents鈥 who were fomenting hatred against trans people and other LGBTIQ groups.
In voting for the no-confidence motion, the RN insisted they were defending ordinary people from the budget cuts that would reduce retirement pensions, and from the rise in electricity prices. But recent months have only confirmed their horrifically reactionary core ideas, as they argued to suppress all sex education in schools. 鈥淩ight-wing feminist鈥 group Nemesis, linked to the RN, hit the news for their campaign to claim that immigration is the main cause of sexual violence.
Combativity and the need for 鈥榮pectacular change鈥
Regardless of who Macron chooses to replace Barnier, resistance to austerity is ongoing. A one-day strike in the public sector on December 5 saw at least two-thirds of primary school teachers walk out, as well as garbage workers, local authority staff and others. About 200,000 people demonstrated around the country.
Rail strikes are planned from December 11. Even university presidents are in revolt against budget cuts in higher education.
Meanwhile, in the private sector there has been a wave of redundancy announcements in recent weeks. Tyre manufacturer Michelin, hypermarket chain Auchan and car company Valeo are among those that announced factory closures.
The crisis is entering a new phase. It is necessary for activists to insist that Macron respect democracy and allow a left government, as well as build the strike movements.
The anti-austerity strikes (teachers are opposing attacks on the right to sick leave; rail workers are fighting the privatisation of freight trains) are crucial. Discussions are needed to link this combativity to a political vision and strategy for 鈥渟pectacular change鈥 (to use M茅lenchon鈥檚 expression).
Marxists should have plenty of ideas to bring to these debates.
[John Mullen is a Marxist living in the Paris area and part of the local France Insoumise group. His website is .]