A day after the formation of the new government, which is already facing proposals for impeachment, the president of France, Emanuel Macron, called on his country’s political forces to “work for stability” and not “bet on instability.”

In remarks on his arrival in Egypt, where he will attend the Gaza peace summit, President Macron accused “the political forces that played on destabilization” of being “the only ones responsible for the unrest.”

Meanwhile, the cabinet of the reshuffled government, compared to the short-lived previous one, is expected to meet for the first time tomorrow, Tuesday (13/10).

In particular, the new government includes 12 of the 18 ministers from the previous government, including Jean-Noël Barrot in the Foreign Ministry and Gérard Darmann in the Justice Ministry. They also include five ministers who previously participated in governments under Macron’s presidency and three people from so-called civil society.

By and large, most of the ministers are members of political formations close to the French president, while six come from the Republican Party and are facing the threat of expulsion after that party decided that it supports but does not participate in the government.

Motions of censure against the new government, even before it has met and made its programmatic statements, have already been announced to have been submitted to the French National Assembly by the far-right National Rally party of the Marine Le Pen and the radical left-wing party “Fighting France“, of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

For the government to fall, an absolute majority of the members of the National Assembly would have to vote in favor of a motion of impeachment, which will more or less depend on what the Socialist Party does, which is currently seeking to have certain decisions related to the overhaul of the pension system lifted and has said it is awaiting the government’s programmatic statements.

At the same time, however, 18 deputies from the parties supporting President Macron, from the ecologists, communists and socialists, including former French President François Hollande, have today submitted a proposition in favour of introducing proportional representation in parliamentary elections to the French National Assembly.

In their report, the 18 deputies argue that simple proportional representation does not mean nullification, pointing out that from 1958 to the present day France, with the majority system, has seen 47 governments, while Germany, with simple proportional representation, has seen 24 governments.

Finally, there is widespread concern in the media and among analysts regarding the impact that prolonged political instability may have on the country’s economy.

A typical example is an article in Le Figaro newspaper, which describes with sarcasm and pessimism the current state of France and, by extension, of Europe, comparing it to the Titanic heading for the wreck.

Comparison with Greece’s economic crisis

The newspaper draws a parallel between today’s France and Greece in financial crisis, mocking those who insist that “France will never become Greece“, just as they used to claim that the Titanic was “unsinkable”. “Political leaders appear weakened and detached from reality, while the political system is sinking into decadence and cynicism.

MPs engage in petty political games, citizens are plunged into apathy, and society seems ready to explode.”

In the same vein, the CEO of the Euronext stock exchange group (which manages six European stock markets), Stephen Bounia, recalled that some European countries were forced to “drastically tighten their belts” as they plunged into crisis and called on Saturday via France Inter radio for these examples to be followed.
On Saturday, on France’s radio station, he called on the French government to follow suit.

He cited as an example the fiscal performance of Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain, which, he pointed out, “have massively reduced their debt” and three of them are now running “primary fiscal surpluses.”