The president returns to focus on national politics after closing the semester of the French presidency of the EU with several successes
Returning to the Elysée Palace after an intense international agenda during the last two weeks, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, together with the prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, is preparing a change of government. It is necessary to do so after his party lost the absolute majority in the National Assembly in the legislative elections in June.
The centrist president has promised “an Executive of action.” The names of the new ministers are expected to be announced before Wednesday, when Borne will deliver his general policy statement to Parliament. The last Cabinet change took place on May 20, after the April presidential elections.
At the moment, it is not expected that the prime minister will submit to a vote of confidence from the deputies on Wednesday. The union of leftist parties (Nupes) asks that it do so, but it is not obliged to do so. La France Insumisa (the French Podemos) has already announced that, in any case, it will present a motion of censure, although it is unlikely that it will succeed in bringing down Borne due to lack of support.
A remodeling of the Executive is necessary after the last appointment with the polls. At least four members of the current government will leave, although there could be more changes. Ministers Amélie de Montchalin (Ecological Transition) and Brigitte Bourguignon (Health), and the Secretary of State for the Sea, Justine Bénin, must resign, since they did not win a seat in the National Assembly and do not have the support of their constituencies. In addition, they will have to find a replacement for the head of Overseas, Yaël Braun-Pivet, the new president of the French lower house, the first woman to access this position.
They could also leave the Borne team, Damien Abad, Minister of Solidarity; and Chrysoula Zacharopoulou, Secretary of State for Development. The Paris Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation for attempted rape against Abad after a woman’s complaint and Zacharopoulou, a gynecologist by profession, has been accused by two clients of abuse and by a third of “gynecological violence” for events allegedly occurred years in his medical consultation.
Macron returns to focus on national politics and the country’s problems after a six-month period with a very busy international agenda: from the rotating French presidency of the Council of the European Union to the war in Ukraine, including the NATO summit in Madrid and the G7 meeting in Germany. He was hardly involved in the presidential and legislative electoral campaigns. He turned more to the rotating presidency of the EU and the war in Ukraine.
The impact of the war
France assumed the reins of the EU on January 1 to hand over this July 1 to the Czech Republic. “The Europe of June 2022 is very different from that of January 2022,” Macron said on June 24 in Brussels.
Russia’s unilateral aggression against Ukraine altered the European agenda of the Elysee. His tenant managed to get the Twenty-seven to sympathize with kyiv and adopt sanctions against Moscow. They sent military equipment to kyiv and welcomed the refugees with open arms. At the Versailles summit, held on May 10 and 11, EU leaders agreed, among other things, to strengthen their defense capabilities and to get out of their dependence on Russian gas, oil and coal imports.
Community partners supported the Paris proposal on the reform of the Schengen area. The Schengen Council was thus created following the model of the Eurogroup, the informal body in which the ministers of the euro zone regularly debate issues related to the single currency. The aim of this ‘political piloting’ is to guarantee both the free movement of people in complete safety and to protect the external borders.
The Member States also approved, under the presidency of Paris, the climate package to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% in 2030, the Digital Markets Law, which takes power away from the technology giants and agreed on a minimum wage European.
The French presidency, however, failed to establish at European level a minimum tax of 15% on the profits of multinationals, which was one of its priorities for this first semester. Paris collided with the blockade first of Poland and then of Hungary.
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