Time for a Left Turn: Reorganizing to Take Down the Neoliberal-Far-Right Alliance

The French early elections ended on July 7, a month before the Paris Olympics. Although no party or coalition of parties won a majority in the second round of voting that day, the group that won the most seats was clear. It was the New Popular Front (NFP), a group of left-wing parties. The New Popular Front won 180 of the 577 seats in the National Assembly, while President Emmanuel Macron’s Ensemble for a Republic won 169 seats and the far-right National Rally (RN) won 142 seats.

If the general election results were as they were, President Macron should have appointed a person recommended by the New Popular Front as prime minister. However, Macron did not do so. For the time being, he delayed the appointment of a prime minister, using the Olympics as an excuse. He made it clear that he would absolutely not accept Lucie Castedt, a young female economist recommended by the New Popular Front as prime minister.

This was an unprecedented situation even in the history of the French Fifth Republic. President François Mitterrand, a Socialist, and President Jacques Chirac, a Gaullist, appointed their biggest opponents (Chirac in Mitterrand’s case, Lionel Jospin in Chirac’s case) as prime ministers when the opposition party won the general elections in 1986 and 1997, respectively. However, this tradition and common sense have now been irrevocably destroyed by Macron.

Then, on September 5, Macron finally announced a new prime minister. It was Michel Barnier (born 1951), a veteran of the “Republicans (LR, Gaullists)” who had long represented the French right wing but had now fallen to the fourth force (39 seats) with a large gap with the three major factions in the National Assembly (the left, Macronists, and the far right). The New Popular Front immediately expressed its opposition to this decision, which had nothing to do with the general election results, or rather, directly contradicted them, and in particular, the “France Inverso (FI),” a radical faction within the New Popular Front led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has been staging large-scale protests calling for a “vote of no confidence in the prime minister, impeachment of the president.”

Michel Barnier = Neoliberalism + Anti-Immigration

Who is Barnier, who was appointed Prime Minister? This name is not unfamiliar to many French people. That is because, since becoming a member of the National Assembly at the young age of 27 in 1978, he has been a prominent Gaullist for almost half a century and has served in the National Assembly and as a minister on several occasions. However, not many people remember exactly what Barnier did. This is because he has not made any impressive achievements, but has built up a brilliant career by representing the average creed of the French right wing at the time.

No, there is one thing. There is one thing that many people remember clearly from Barnier’s history. But the problem is that it is not the French who remember it so vividly. It is the British. Barnier was the EU’s chief negotiator for Brexit from 2016 to 2021, and he played a role in imposing harsh negotiation conditions on the UK. In other words, he is the person who recently gave the British the same bitter memories that Michel Camdessus, the head of the International Monetary Fund, left to the Koreans during the 1997 foreign exchange crisis.

But this brief introduction already explains Barnier to a great extent. The past half-century, during which Barnier lived a smooth life as a political elite, was the period when neoliberalism was born, triumphed, and began to decline. During this period, the Gaullists, the mainstream of the post-war right wing in France, continued to move away from the ideology and line of its founder, Charles de Gaulle, who pursued state-managed capitalism with a particularly strong tendency toward state intervention in opposition to the US-led Atlanticism. They joined the wave of neoliberalism opened by the right-wing party (Conservative Party) of their western neighbor (United Kingdom) much faster than the right-wing party (Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union) of their eastern neighbor (West Germany/Germany). Barnier was a figure in the middle of this flow.

Then, in the 2020s, when neoliberalism was entering its twilight, Barnier took on a challenge that could be the last in his long political career. After finishing his work as the head of the Brexit negotiation team, Barnier formed his own faction, the Patriotic-European faction, within his own party, the Republicans. This was to run for the 2022 presidential primary.

In the ‘Republican Party’ that had already abandoned the core of Gaullism, what Barnier proposed as the content of ‘patriotism’ was the strengthening of non-European immigration regulations. The person who forced ‘punitive’ negotiation conditions for Brexit, which was driven by anti-immigrant sentiment, was the one who took the lead in importing this anti-immigrant propaganda. In the party primary, Barnier pledged to nail immigration restrictions to the constitution and expand them to the entire European Union. However, Barnier’s performance was only third place in the party primary, and it seemed that his political career would end with this.

But the curtain that was thought to have fallen has risen again. President Macron, who caused a stir seven years ago by harshly criticizing the “old” French politics, has once again called this 73-year-old veteran politician to the stage. Many media outlets predicted that Macron would try to divide the New Popular Front by appointing a right-wing member of the Socialist Party or a prominent figure with deep ties to the Socialist Party as prime minister, but this prediction was surprisingly wrong. As a result, all the parties participating in the New Popular Front, including the Socialist Party, unanimously opposed the appointment of Barnier as prime minister.

The logic of the appointment of Prime Minister Barnier – A new synthesis of neoliberalism and far-right politics

The general opinion is that the reason Macron chose Barnier after two months of opposition is to deal with the 2025 budget. Macron has already made it clear that he will not accept (?!) the results of this general election, which reflects the will of the people, but according to the constitution, a new general election can only be held one year later. Of course, Macron has ‘shown’ over the past two months that he can sufficiently govern through a cabinet that does not receive support from the National Assembly.

But there is one thing that can never be done without parliamentary approval by July next year: processing the government budget. In order to solve this absolute task, Macron had no choice but to abandon political stunts such as the plan to split the New Popular Front and choose Barnier.

The fiscal issue is a hot topic for the current Macron government and, by extension, for French politics in general. France, the second-largest economy in the euro zone, also has the largest absolute government debt in the European Union. In recent years, the government deficit has been recording more than 5% of GDP every year. And the Macron government has also played a part in this fiscal situation. As soon as Macron took office as president in 2017, he hurriedly pushed forward with a policy of abolishing the wealth tax. It was a truly sincere return for the favor of the privileged class that had helped a young, upstart politician rise to power.

▲French Prime Minister Michel Barnier (right) and former Prime Minister Garriel Attal, who had their inauguration ceremony on the 5th. ⓒFrance 24 Galmuri

But thanks to that, the fiscal situation of the country, which was already suffering from chronic economic recession, worsened even further. The Macron government’s actions over the past seven years have been marked by efforts to somehow alleviate this fiscal deficit problem. However, it could not abandon or reverse the policy of tax cuts for the rich. Then, there was only one solution. The only way was to increase taxes for the poor in proportion to the tax cuts for the rich. In other words, income had to be redistributed from the bottom up. The massive public protests that occurred repeatedly during Macron’s first and second terms were all resistance to such brazen provocations. The yellow vest movement against the package to abolish the wealth tax and increase the fuel tax was one such example, and last year’s protests against the attempt to raise the pension age (in other words, reduce pension spending) were another example.

In the early general elections two months ago, the New People’s Front proposed its own solution to this problem. In a word, it was a reversal of the seven years of corruption under the Macron government. It was to go beyond the level of withdrawing tax cuts for the rich or restoring the wealth tax and to implement a large-scale tax increase for the rich. Of course, in order to maintain the existing welfare system and invest in ecological transformation as promised by the New People’s Front, an increase in spending that exceeds this increase in tax revenue may be necessary. Therefore, even within the New People’s Front, there are those who argue that in the case of ‘France that does not surrender’, the level of deficit allowance should be renegotiated with the EU.

But in any case, the starting point is not the common people, but the privileged class to overcome the immediate financial difficulties. This is not just a claim by radical left parties like ‘France Unbowed’. It is also a common demand by trade union federations (such as the CGT) and civil society groups that led the protests against the pension system reform, and it is also a recommendation unanimously made by non-neoliberal and post-neoliberal economists who participated in the drafting of the New Popular Front’s election policy, including Thomas Piketty.

Macron could not accept this voice. That is why he could not give the New Popular Front a chance to form a government despite the general election results. On the other hand, Barnier and the entire Gaullist faction, like the Macron faction, are believers in the EU-style neoliberalism of “compliance with balanced budget + redistribution from the bottom up.” If you add the Gaullist faction to the Macron faction in the National Assembly, the number of seats will exceed the New Popular Front.

But this alone is not enough. The budget bill cannot be passed. In addition to keeping the New Popular Front out, another party needs to vote in favor or abstain. That party is none other than National Unity. However, unlike the New Popular Front, National Unity is not so negative about Prime Minister Barnier. It is understandable. Among the two policy directions that Barnier represents, “anti-immigration” is the original founding ideology and core value of National Unity. The formation of the Barnier cabinet means that National Unity is on the verge of taking power. After all, the people most suitable to be in charge of the top level of a government that is already implementing the core policies of National Unity (not the belatedly converted Macronites or De Gaulleites) would be National Unity figures.

Moreover, in terms of finance, National Rally is getting closer to the neoliberal coalition of Macron and Barnier. National Rally, which became a major force in parliament after the 2022 general elections, is trying hard to show the capitalist camp that it is a ‘responsible’ ruling party. Therefore, it does not make any efforts to reverse the tax cut policy for the rich and agrees with the mainstream party’s ‘sound fiscal’ theory. It seems that if they can adjust the budget items related to immigration regulations as they wish, the neoliberal coalition has no objections to anything else. Therefore, it is understandable for Macron to appoint Barnier as prime minister, expecting National Rally’s support or abstention.

In this passage, we discover a strange dynamic between the major political forces in France. The neoliberal forces (self-proclaimed “centrist” coalition) currently led by Macron are in power under the pretext of preventing the far right from taking power. However, throughout their time in power, they have driven more and more parts of society into a whirlpool of discontent and anger, increasing the possibility of the far right taking power. In this situation, the neoliberal coalition accepted the core arguments of the far right, saying that it was to suppress the growth of the far right, and in return, the far right, which is increasingly expanding its share of the institutional system, began to present itself as the true successor of neoliberalism. And finally, when only the left remained a true believer in “democracy” and claimed their opportunity, the neoliberal forces and the far right became one body and fought against it. The true ruling party of capitalism is finally being completed.

Left reorganization needed to counter neoliberal-far-right coalition

The emergence of the Barnier cabinet is both a crisis and an opportunity for the New Popular Front. It is a great crisis, of course, in that it ultimately missed the opportunity to take power given by the voters. However, the clear colors of the current French ruling coalition (neoliberalism + extreme right) revealed by Prime Minister Barnier could be an opportunity for the New Popular Front to strengthen its cohesion and expansion as the main opposition party.

Above all, it is fortunate that an early clash between the right-wing Socialist Party and the left-wing “France Unbowed” within the New People’s Front was avoided. However, this is only “buying time” and not a “fundamental solution” to the problem.

No, the fundamental differences between the right wing of the Socialist Party and the “France that does not surrender” have actually widened with the appearance of the Barnier cabinet. This is because the effectiveness of the so-called “Republican Front,” or “anti-extreme right coalition,” which had been taken for granted by the French left and ultimately became the most important factor in the victory of the New Popular Front in this early general election, is now being put on trial.

The ‘anti-extreme right coalition’ is, simply put, a coalition of neoliberals and the left against the extreme right in the presidential runoff or the second round of the general election. However, in the current situation where neoliberals and the extreme right are clearly converging through the Macron-Barnier government, is the ‘anti-extreme right coalition’ still valid? Isn’t what is needed now a ‘more left-wing’ left coalition that will confront the new synthesis of neoliberalism and extreme right politics?

In response to this question, the liberal forces inside and outside the Socialist Party, led by Raphaël Glücksmann, who made great strides in the Socialist Party’s electoral coalition in the last local elections, still respond that an “anti-extreme right coalition” is necessary, and that this requires a break with Mélenchon’s radical left politics. On the contrary, “France Unbowed,” which started a street protest calling for “no confidence in the prime minister, impeachment of the president,” calls for a more powerful left coalition that can attract both the politically disillusioned and the national unity supporters by taking a hard line against the Macron-Barnier government, centered on the New Popular Front’s general election pledges. They further claim that the current Fifth Republic constitution, which serves as the institutional foundation for Macron’s anti-democratic rule, must be completely revised.

The rest of the New Popular Front is wavering between these two poles. The Communist Party and the Green Party are relatively close to the ‘France that does not surrender’ position, but in the case of the Socialist Party, the faction centered around Olivier Faure, the current Secretary-General who led the formation of the New Popular Front, is facing a difficult confrontation with the old faction including former President François Hollande (who was recently elected to the National Assembly).

It is a complicated situation. Nevertheless, we cannot hesitate to boldly change the entire left in line with the rapid changes of the times. In this respect, the exciting stories of this early general election, such as the hasty formation of the New People’s Front, the passionate election campaign, and the unexpected victory in the second round of voting, are actually only the first act of a longer drama. The drama is now moving on to a new chapter in the streets, leaving the Elysee Palace once again.