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Emmanuel Macron took office on Friday in his new government. The far-right did not wait long to attack the newly appointed education minister, Bob Ndie.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday appointed veteran diplomat Catherine Cologne as head of the foreign ministry. The new government From the country of civil society personalities, including historian Bob Ndiaye, who has been attacked by far-right opposition. A career ambassador, Mrs. Colona, 66, is the current French ambassador to London.
Among other members of the government led by Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne, Mr. Sebastien Legorn, a staunch supporter of Macron, was appointed to replace Florence Barley in the Armed Forces Ministry. Mr. Legorn was already part of the previous government in a foreign position.
The surprising announcement came from the appointment of Bob Ndiaye, who has so far directed the National Museum of Immigration History. The 56-year-old university intellectual was born in France to a Senegalese father and a French mother, specializing in the social history of the United States and minorities. He is the brother of the successful writer Mary Ndaye. He traditionally wins this position over Jean-Michel Blanker.
The anger of the far right
The appointment of Bob Ndio provoked the anger of the far right. Mr. Marine Le Pen, in the second round of the presidential election. Defeated against Macron, he denounced the “speculated tribes” as a sign of “the last stone of our country’s values and the decay of its future.” .
“Emmanuel Macron said the history of France should be distorted. Pap Ndiaye will take care of it,” said former candidate Eric Zemmer. He thought.
Speaking on the TF1 channel in the evening, the new prime minister dismissed these “caricature” allegations and spoke of a “very determined Republican Party” that shares the goal of “providing better and equal opportunities for our children.”
Rima Abdul Malak, Franco-Lebanese adviser to Emmanuel Macron, has been appointed Minister of Culture. Significant rise of this forty-something expert on live shows: he spent the first ten years of his life in Beirut in the middle of the Civil War, before coming to Lyon (Middle-East) with his parents, his brother and his sister.
The new government, comprising 14 women (including the Prime Minister) and 14 men, will include several heavyweights in the economy, including Bruno Le Myre, Gerard Dormann in the interior or Eric DuPont-Moretti in the judiciary.
Damien Abbott, a former leader of the Les Republicans’ House of Representatives, has resigned from the right and has been appointed to the Ministry of Unity. Instead, former Socialist Olivier Dussopt will replace Labor Minister Macron, who continues to break the left / right divide that has dominated French politics for decades.
Ms Bourne argued at TF1 that “at first it was a coalition and balanced government” and “newcomers from the center, the left and the right”.
Legislative struggle
Formed three weeks after the re-election of Emmanuel Macron on April 24, this government must lead the battle for the June 12 and 19 assembly elections, during which the presidential party will seek to regain a national majority. legislative Assembly.
The new executive will face a busy and difficult national and international agenda with the war in Ukraine, unprecedented inflation since the introduction of the euro and sluggish growth. In opposition, the far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who won 22% of the vote in the presidential election, denounced the “very liberal government.”
On Monday, the head of state played a continuing role in appointing Elizabeth Bourne as a left-wing technocrat and several times minister, trying to send a message to the reformist left without intimidating the right-wing opposition.
61-year-old Mrs. Bourne, Mr. Macron was Minister of Transport, Ecology and Labor for the first five years, and was one of the few to sit in government since he took office as president in 2017.
In response to the outrage expressed by many French people during the popular movement “Yellow Underwear”, the head of state undertook this second installment. The environment is tense: According to a recent poll conducted by the Ifop Institute, a majority of French people (77%) say they fear social explosion.
(AFP)