PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron weathered a turbulent political summer, but he feels isolated and is frustrated with his new right-wing government, according to people close to him.
Macron’s appointment of 73-year-old conservative Michel Barnier as prime minister ended two months of political chaos after snap legislative elections in July.
In line with his new role under the power-sharing arrangement, the centre-right president has taken a back seat on the domestic front, letting Barnier name a cabinet and concentrating on foreign policy.
In public, the 46-year-old Macron is still all smiles, but in private, he has been seething.
“I did not choose this government,” Macron recently told a trusted confidante, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
“They make me feel ashamed,” the president said of some of the most conservative ministers.
The most hardline member of the new government, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, stirred controversy just days into the job, vowing to crack down on immigration and saying that “the rule of law is neither intangible nor sacred”.
After performing strongly in the snap election but failing to secure an outright victory, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party is a potential kingmaker that could decide the fate of Barnier’s fragile minority government. AFP
