PARIS: Tensions over French President-elect Emmanuel Macron’s bid to redraw France’s political map burst into the open Friday as a key ally was left furious ahead of crucial parliamentary elections next month.
Macron angered fellow centrist Francois Bayrou and faced mockery from his opponents after his La Republique En Marche (REM, The Republic on the Move) party unveiled more than 400 candidates for crucial parliamentary elections in June.
“It’s a big recycling operation for the Socialist party,” Bayrou told L’Obs magazine, adding bitterly that candidates from his MoDem party had been offered only 35 constituencies instead of the 120 he expected.
Bayrou, a veteran centrist and presidential candidate, threw his and MoDem’s support behind Macron at the end of February at a crucial time when the 39-year-old president-elect’s campaign needed new momentum.
“When I offered him my support, he was at 18 percent,” Bayrou added.
Macron, who will be inaugurated on Sunday, has promised to refresh France’s Parliament and his party unveiled 428 out of 577 candidates on Thursday.
Half of them have never held elected office, including a retired female bullfighter and a star mathematician, and half of them are women.
The initial reaction from three out of four voters was positive, a survey published Friday by the Harris Interactive polling group suggested.
“Probably the biggest success of Emmanuel Macron is having motivated so many people who were outside of politics to have committed themselves to try to renew things,” his spokesman Benjamin Griveaux said on Friday.
But as well as angering Bayrou, REM was forced to correct its list after around 10 people said they had not agreed to stand for the party or had never applied to be a candidate.
One was Mourad Boudjellal, the wealthy president of Toulon rugby club, who said that while he was flattered about being approached, “it is not my ambition” to enter politics.
The vice president of the far-right National Front, Florian Philippot, accused Macron of “amateurism.”
The parliamentary selection process is seen as a tricky and risky balancing act for Macron, who will take over from widely unpopular Socialist Francois Hollande.
Without his own parliamentary majority, the former investment banker will find it hard to push through his planned reforms of the labor market, pensions, unemployment benefits or education.
Macron, a former economy minister in Hollande’s government, has so far failed to attract centrist members of the rightwing Republicans party, but still believes some will cross over before next Wednesday.
Before then, he faces other crucial decisions on his staff at the Elysee Palace and his first government.
The most important will be his choice for prime minister, who will head the government until at least the parliamentary elections on June 11 and 18 and perhaps beyond.
Amid feverish speculation in the French media — will he pick a loyal supporter or someone from the rightwing Republicans? — nothing has leaked from his small group of aides.
The choice will send a strong signal about Macron’s intentions, and he has promised to pick someone with past experience of Parliament and capable of managing a majority. His declared preference is for a woman.
Immediately after his swearing-in, Macron will head to Berlin to meet German Chancellor Angela Merkel to start discussions about his ambitious plans for reforming the EU.
Macron wants to deepen integration in the 19-country eurozone, giving the zone its own budget, and wants to toughen the EU’s response to “unfair” industrial competition from countries such as China.
France’s Macron angers ally with Parliament picks
France’s Macron angers ally with Parliament picks
Tensions flare in Minnesota as protesters and federal agents repeatedly square off
- The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, saying he acted in self-defense
- With the Department of Homeland Security pledging to send more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, the state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, sued President Donald Trump’s administration Monday to halt or limit the surge
MINNEAPOLIS: Federal officers dropped tear gas and sprayed eye irritant at activists Tuesday during another day of confrontations in Minneapolis while students miles away walked out of a suburban school to protest the Trump administration’s bold immigration sweeps.
The government’s immigration crackdown is next headed to a federal court where Minnesota and two mayors are asking a judge to immediately suspend the operation. No hearing has been set on the request.
Gas clouds filled a Minneapolis street near where Renee Good was fatally shot in the head by an immigration agent last week. A man scrubbed his eyes with snow and screamed for help while agents in an unmarked Jeep sprayed an orange irritant and drove away.
It’s common for people to boo, taunt and blow orange whistles when they spot heavily armed agents passing through in unmarked vehicles or walking the streets, all part of a grassroots effort to warn the neighborhood and remind the government that they’re watching.
“Who doesn’t have a whistle?” a man with a bag of them yelled.
Brita Anderson, who lives nearby and came to support neighborhood friends, said she was “incensed” to see agents in tactical gear and gas masks, and wondered about their purpose.
“It felt like the only reason they’d come here is to harass people,” Anderson said.
Separately, a judge heard arguments and said she would rule by Thursday or Friday on a request to restrict the use of force, such as chemical irritants, on people who are observing and recording agents’ activities. Government attorneys argued that officers are acting within their authority and must protect themselves.
In Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, students protesting the immigration enforcement operation walked out of school, as students in other communities have done this week.
With the Department of Homeland Security pledging to send more than 2,000 immigration officers into Minnesota, the state, joined by Minneapolis and St. Paul, sued President Donald Trump’s administration Monday to halt or limit the surge.
The lawsuit says the Department of Homeland Security is violating the First Amendment and other constitutional protections by focusing on a progressive state that favors Democrats and welcomes immigrants.
“This is, in essence, a federal invasion of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and it must stop,” state Attorney General Keith Ellison said.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said: “What we are seeing is thousands — plural — thousands of federal agents coming into our city. And, yeah, they’re having a tremendous impact on day-to-day life.”
Dozens of protests or vigils have taken place across the US to honor Good since the 37-year-old mother of three was killed.
Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests in the state since early December and is vowing to not back down. Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin, responding to the lawsuit, accused Minnesota officials of ignoring public safety.
“President Trump’s job is to protect the American people and enforce the law — no matter who your mayor, governor, or state attorney general is,” McLaughlin said.
The Trump administration has repeatedly defended the immigration agent who shot Good, saying he acted in self-defense. But that explanation has been widely panned by Frey, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and others based on videos of the confrontation.
Two Democratic lawmakers from Massachusetts announced Tuesday they are sponsoring a bill to make it easier for people to sue and overcome immunity protections for federal officers who are accused of violating civil rights. The bill stands little chance of passage in the Republican-controlled Congress.
In Wisconsin, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez is proposing that the state ban civil immigration enforcement around courthouses, hospitals, health clinics, schools, churches and other places. She is hoping to succeed Gov. Tony Evers, a fellow Democrat, who is not running for a third term.
“We can take a look at that, but I think banning things absolutely will ramp up the actions of our folks in Washington, D.C.,” Evers said, referring to the Trump administration. “They don’t tend to approach those things appropriately.”
