Macron Says French Parliament Can Overcome Divisive Election
(Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron defended his decision in June to call snap parliamentary elections and said he trusted the new government to be able to push through “useful reform” for the country.
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“I’m reasonably optimistic about the fact that reasonable social democrats, centrists and reasonable rightists can work together for the years to come to deliver a strong agenda,” Macron said on a panel discussion with Bloomberg’s Stephanie Flanders at the Berlin Global Dialogue. “What we have to do is first to preserve and digest all the reforms we delivered during the past seven years.”
Michel Barnier, who was named prime minister last month, said in his first policy address to France’s parliament on Tuesday that his government wouldn’t work miracles but that it would strive to overcome obstacles to meet the public’s concerns.
In his speech, Barnier sought to tread a narrow path between reassuring markets that France would get its public finances under control while maintaining enough support to avoid his government being toppled by a no-confidence motion.
Macron said that it had become untenable to continue to govern with the prior composition of parliament, given opinion polls that put support for the far right at 35% of voters. Yet the ballot didn’t hand power to the populist National Rally party. Instead, it resulted in a divided parliament in which no single party could form a majority with only its allies.
“I asked the French people: Do you want them to govern? They answered very clearly: No,” Macron said.
The president said he didn’t expect to dissolve parliament again, which he is able to do as of next summer, advocating instead for Barnier to build consensus.
“My view is that we have to preserve now till the end of my mandate,” he said. “We are just building something, but look at the situation, nothing was sacrificed, all the reforms are preserved, and this new government has to work with parliament and progressively we will build consensus.”
He added that his support of the European Union’s growth agenda was largely based on his view that it’s the sole method of improving the situation for the middle class and preventing them from continuing to move toward political extremes.
“This is the only way to reconcile economy and the reality of politics.” he said.
--With assistance from Stephanie Flanders.
(Updates with Macron comments on dissolution starting in seventh paragraph.)
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