Protests break out in France as left rages at Macron for shutting them out of power despite election victory

By NBC News

THE far left has planned nationwide protests after a successful push to finish first resulted in the installation of a prime minister who has been a staple of right-wing French politics for decades.

A furious French left has called for mass protests across more than 130 towns and cities on Saturday, after French President Emmanuel Macron named a right-wing prime minister, despite the left’s surprising victory in July’s tumultuous elections.

The New Popular Front, a left-wing coalition assembled to counter France’s rising far right, upset the odds and stunned the nation when it won the most seats in France’s National Assembly, as the majority of French voters rejected Macron’s pro-business centrist alliance in favor of the political extremes.

France had braced for a victory by the far-right National Rally in the elections until leftist parties formed an unlikely alliance at the last minute, pushing the anti-immigration RN into third place and leaving Macron’s centrists in second.

While the leftist bloc failed to secure an absolute majority, the French president ordinarily names a prime minister from the group with the most seats in parliament.

But Macron shunned the left’s efforts to oust the establishment, and instead appointed veteran French conservative Michel Barnier, a longstanding member of the right-wing Republicans party, which finished fourth in the elections.

Barnier, a right-wing politician with more than 50 years in politics, shares Macron’s conservative views on economic policy and hails from the same pro-European establishment as the president. (In France, the prime minister oversees domestic policy, while the president leads foreign affairs.)

A survey published by French pollster, Elabe, on Friday showed that 74% of French people considered Macron had disregarded the results of the elections by appointing Barnier, with 55% believing he had stolen them.

Macron hopes that Barnier will be able to form a government that can survive a deeply divided National Assembly — something he didn’t believe the New Popular Front was capable of.

So far, the leaders of the far right have not confirmed whether they’ll support Barnier’s leadership.

And the left is aggrieved that a successful attempt to finish first in the election somehow resulted in the installation of a prime minister who has been a staple of right-wing French politics for decades.

Calling on people to mobilize against Macron’s decision, La France Insoumise (France Unbowed), a far-left party that makes up part of the New Popular Front, says on their website that the President “refuses to recognize” the result of the election.

It demands that the president “respect the choice of the people” by enacting the New Popular Front’s policies, including raising the minimum wage, lowering the retirement age to 60, and recognizing Palestinian statehood.

Ahead of the elections, France had been rocked by protests, pinning increased economic instability to Macron’s pro-business policies driving voters to the populist extremes of the left and right, who both called for expensive policies protecting France’s social safety net while opposing Macron’s controversial pension reforms.

But it’s only the left who are calling for protests on Saturday.

The roughly 130 protests are expected across the country, including in major cities such as Lille, Montpellier, Nice and Strasbourg, as well as more rural towns in France. Demonstrations at Paris’ Bastille are scheduled for 2 p.m. local time.