Paris Burns

by Guillermo Alvarado

France is the second economy of the European Union and one of the world’s nuclear powers. However, the country is living the most complex days since the beginning of the so-called Fifth Republic, after the end of the Second World War, due to the fall of the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

It was actually a foretold event, as the days of the head of the cabinet were numbered since he rejected the general state budget for 2025, approved by the National Assembly, where the forces favorable to President Emmanuel Macron are in the minority.

Barnier spent less than 100 days in office, one of the shortest in just over half a century, and although the motion of censure against him does not directly affect the Elysee Palace, it should not be forgotten that he was appointed precisely to ensure national stability.

The crisis in Paris has been going on since last June, when the triumph of the far right led by Marine le Pen with a large majority in the elections to the European Parliament forced the calling of early parliamentary elections.

In the assembly, the ultra-nationalists and the New Popular Front of the left remained as the main forces.

Recently, Macron addressed the nation to try to calm the waters and promised to appoint a replacement for Barnier who would be able to represent all the interests and sectors of France, something difficult in a fragmented country.

He also announced that he would send to the legislative body an emergency financial law to allow the functioning of the state from January, while negotiations continue to arrive at a new budget model, and reiterated his decision not to resign from office.

The French president's term ends in 2027, but there are more and more voices asking him to leave the Elysée and call for early elections.

One of them was Mathilde Panot, deputy of the left-wing party La France Insoumise, who said that the only way out of the impasse in which the president has brought the country is for him to leave as soon as possible.

The extremist Marine le Pen was less direct, appealing to the president's conscience to choose between the public good and his pride.

This crisis is added to the one that has occurred in Germany, the European locomotive, and leaves the continental bloc in extreme weakness, just when Donald Trump is about to take office in the United States, who does not exactly aspire to be a friend, but a patron.