Good News! Good News! A Defeat for Macron By Richard Miller (London)
While there is a lot of bad news out there today that wee need to confront, let us start the ball rolling with some good news. We all know that France’s President Emmanuel Macron's ruling party lost its majority in elections last month. Now the true worth of having an independent voice in parliament is being shown. The French National Assembly rejected Macron’s proposal to give the government powers to demand travellers show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test when entering France, a covid passport.
The defeat was by 219 votes to 195. All the major opposition parties -- the far-right National Rally (RN), the hard left LFI, and right-wing Republicans (LR) -- united against the minority government. Now it is amazing that the French left did this, but I think it as a one shot for them. Still, it shows the power of decentralisation, and hopefully people in Australia will start to realise that there needs to be a breakup of power too. There is hope, so keep fighting everyone.
“France's government has suffered its first defeat in parliament after President Emmanuel Macron's ruling party lost its majority in elections last month.
The National Assembly rejected a proposal on Tuesday night to give the government powers to demand travellers show proof of vaccination or a negative Covid-19 test when entering France.
The defeat by 219 votes to 195 saw all the major opposition parties -- the far-right National Rally (RN), the hard left LFI, and rightwing Republicans (LR) -- unite against the minority government.
"The circumstances oblige the government to listen to opposition parties which at the moment it has a few difficulties in doing," top Republicans MP Olivier Marleix told Sud Radio on Wednesday morning.
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne condemned the obstruction and allies sought to stress how the so-called "extremes" -- the far-right and hard-left -- had teamed up together.
"Clear collusion between the extremes, each one applauding the other," MP Maud Bregeon from Macron's Republic on the Move wrote on Twitter alongside a video.
Fellow ruling party MP Remy Rebeyrotte criticised "an atmosphere like a football match" during the debate where speakers were routinely shouted down.
The most senior MP in the hard-left LFI party, Mathilde Panot, referred to ruling party MPs as "Playmobils" -- an insult comparing them to inanimate toys.
Despite the setback on the border controls, a wider bill to tackle the seventh wave of Covid-19 infections passed the assembly with 221 votes in favour and 187 against.
After being re-elected to a second term in April, Macron saw his ability to push through domestic reforms severely curtailed by the setback in June's parliamentary election.
Analysts say he will need to rely on the right-wing Republicans party whose 62 MPs will be crucial for passing legislation.”
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