French government under pressure on multiple fronts

PARIS

French Prime Minister Michel Barnier's hard-won new government faced pressure from day one on Sunday, as it came under fire from opponents on both the left and far right, which are now the largest blocs in parliament.

Eleven weeks of negotiations after President Emmanuel Macron called spot National Assembly elections finally ended on Sept. 21 with his announcement by a cabinet that marked a significant shift to the right.

The new cabinet's first meeting is scheduled for today.

But opposition politicians from the left have already said they will challenge Barnier's government with a confidence motion, with far-right politicians also slamming its composition.

In the July election, a left-wing alliance called the New Popular Front (NFP) won the most parliamentary seats of any political bloc, but not enough for an overall majority.

Veteran far-right leader Marine Le Pen, meanwhile, saw her National Rally emerge as the single largest party in the Assembly.

Macron turned to Barnier to lead a government drawing mostly on parliamentary support from Macron's allies, as well as from the conservative Republicans (LR) and the centrists groups, even though the LR came in fourth in the June snap election.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon has called the new lineup "a government of the general election losers."

France, he said, should "get rid" of the government "as soon as possible," while his France Unbowed party threatened to "increase popular pressure" on the government.

Socialist party chairman Oliver Faure dismissed Barnier's cabinet as "a reactionary government that gives democracy the finger."

Macron had been counting on a neutral stance from the far right, but National Rally leader Jordan Bardella was quick to condemn the composition of the new government.

It marked "a return to Macronism" and so had "no future whatsoever," he said on Sept. 21.