PARIS: Thousands of people took to the streets across France on Saturday to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to appoint center-right Michel Barnier as prime minister with left-wing parties accusing him of stealing legislative elections.
Macron named 73-year-old Barnier, a conservative and the European Union’s former Brexit negotiator, as prime minister on Thursday, capping a two-month-long search following his ill-fated decision to call a legislative election that delivered a hung parliament divided in three blocs.
In his first interview as government chief, Barnier said on Friday night that his government, which lacks a clear majority, will include conservatives, members of Macron’s camp and he hoped some from the left.
Barnier faces the daunting task of trying to drive reforms and the 2025 budget, as France is under pressure from the European Commission and bond markets to reduce its deficit.
The left, led by the far-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, has accused Macron of a denial of democracy and stealing the election after Macron refused to pick the candidate of the New Popular Front (NFP) alliance that came top in the July vote.
Pollster Elabe published a survey on Friday showing that 74 percent of French people considered Macron had disregarded the results of the elections with 55 percent believing he had stolen them.
In response to the appointment of Barnier, whose center-right Les Republicains party is only the fifth bloc in parliament with less than 50 lawmakers, left-wing party leaders, unions and student bodies called for mass protests on Saturday ahead of new action, including possible strikes on Oct. 1.
The LFI party said 130 protests would take place across the country.
Barnier was continuing consultations on Saturday as he looks to form a government, a tricky job given he faces a potential no-confidence vote especially with an urgent draft budget for 2025 due to be discussed in parliament at the start of October.
NFP and the far-right National Rally (RN) together have a majority and could oust the prime minister through a no-confidence vote should they decide to collaborate.
The RN gave its tacit approval for Barnier citing a number of conditions for it to not back a no-confidence vote, making it the de facto kingmaker for the new government.
“He is a prime minister under surveillance,” RN party leader Jordan Bardella told BFM on Saturday. “Nothing can be done without us.”
Thousands protest in France after Macron picks Barnier as prime minister
https://arab.news/cxpvn
Thousands protest in France after Macron picks Barnier as prime minister
- Left-wing parties accuse Macron of stealing elections
- Demonstrations in 130 locations across France
- New PM Barnier faces tricky government formation
US to cut roughly 200 NATO positions, sources say
- Trump famously threatened to withdraw from NATO during his first presidential term and said on the campaign trail that he would encourage Russia to attack NATO members that did not pay their fair share on defense
WASHINGTON: The United States plans to reduce the number of personnel it has stationed within several key NATO command centers, a move that could intensify concerns in Europe about Washington’s commitment to the alliance, three sources familiar with the matter said this week.
As part of the move, which the Trump administration has communicated to some European capitals, the US will eliminate roughly 200 positions from the NATO entities that oversee and plan the alliance’s military and intelligence operations, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss private diplomatic conversations.
Among the bodies that will be affected, said the sources, are the UK-based NATO Intelligence Fusion Center and the Allied Special Operations Forces Command in Brussels. Portugal-based STRIKFORNATO, which oversees some maritime operations, will also be cut, as will several other similar NATO entities, the sources said.
The sources did not specify why the US had decided to cut the number of staff dedicated to the NATO roles, but the moves broadly align with the Trump administration’s stated intention to shift more resources toward the Western Hemisphere.
The Washington Post first reported the decision.
TRUMP RE-POSTS MESSAGE IDENTIFYING NATO AS THREAT
The changes are small relative to the size of the US military force stationed in Europe and do not necessarily signal a broader US shift away from the continent. Around 80,000 military personnel are stationed in Europe, almost half of them in Germany. But the moves are nonetheless likely to stoke European anxiety about the future of the alliance, which is already running high given US President Donald Trump’s stepped-up campaign to wrest Greenland away from Denmark, raising the unprecedented prospect of territorial aggression within NATO.
On Tuesday morning, the US president, who is scheduled to fly to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland in the evening, shared another user’s post on social media that identified NATO as a threat to the United States. The post described China and Russia as merely “boogeymen.”
Asked for comment, a NATO official said changes to US staffing are not unusual and that the US presence in Europe is larger than it has been in years.
“NATO and US authorities are in close contact about our overall posture – to ensure NATO retains our robust capacity to deter and defend,” the NATO official said.
The White House and the Pentagon did not respond to requests for comment.
MILITARY IMPACT UNCLEAR, SYMBOLIC IMPACT OBVIOUS
Reuters could not obtain a full list of NATO entities that will be affected by the new policy. About 400 US personnel are stationed within the entities that will see cuts, one of the sources said, meaning the total number of Americans at the affected NATO bodies will be reduced by roughly half.
Rather than recalling servicemembers from their current posts, the US will for the most part decline to backfill them as they move on from their positions, the sources said.
The drawdown comes as the alliance traverses one of the most diplomatically fraught moments in its 77-year history. Trump famously threatened to withdraw from NATO during his first presidential term and said on the campaign trail that he would encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack NATO members that did not pay their fair share on defense. But he appeared to warm to NATO over the first half of 2025, effusively praising NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte and other European leaders after they agreed to boost defense spending at a June summit.
In recent weeks, however, his administration has again provoked alarm across Europe. In early December, Pentagon officials told diplomats that the US wants Europe to take over the majority of NATO’s conventional defense capabilities, from intelligence to missiles, by 2027, a deadline that struck European officials as unrealistic. A key US national security document released shortly after called for the US to dedicate more of its military resources to the Western Hemisphere, calling into question whether Europe will continue to be a priority theater for the US
In the first weeks of 2026, Trump has revived his longstanding campaign to acquire Greenland, an overseas territory of Denmark, enraging officials in Copenhagen and throughout Europe, many of whom believe any territorial aggression within the alliance would mark the end of NATO. Over the weekend, Trump said he would slap several NATO countries with tariffs starting February 1 due to their support for Denmark’s sovereignty over the island. That has caused European Union officials to mull retaliatory tariffs of their own.
