What Democracy Lessons Does France Possess to Offer the World?

By assigning the right-wing politician Michel Barnier to form the government after more than two months of a stifling political crisis, French President Emmanuel Macron has lost many things, most notably that France can no longer play the role model in respecting democratic values. Therefore it is no longer qualified to give lessons to other countries.

Although Michel Barnier belongs to the “Republicans” party, which did not rank first, second or third in the last legislative elections, he became Prime Minister overnight by a political decision of the French President, which was considered the first political force, the “New Popular Front”, as a violation of the democratic traditions inherited in France, and a “theft” of the electoral will of the French voters, calling for “the strongest possible mobilization” on Saturday, September 7, 2024, against what they called a “coup d’état”.

Macron’s decision was described as a “coup of power” because he chose a political figure from the party that ranked fourth in the legislative elections held on June 30 to lead the government, which made MP Jérôme Legavre of the “France Insoumise” party considered Barnier’s appointment as the choice of Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right, whose party ranked third in the legislative elections.

Jérôme Legavre posted on X; “Michel Barnier, Prime Minister with the blessing of the RN, is therefore responsible for forming a Macron-Le Pen government”, to explain that the prime minister-designate had always been respected by the “National Rally” party or the former far-right National Front, and was close to its far-right program, especially concerning the immigration file. Thus France is ruled by a Macron-Le Pen government.

The leader of the Socialist Party (one of the left-wing bloc parties), Olivier Faure, considered through his post on “X” that what Macron is doing is a “democratic denial at its peak: a prime minister from the party that came in 4th place and who did not even participate in the Republican front. We are witnessing a regime crisis”.

Macron’s decision is described as a severe blow to democratic traditions in France, as the political bloc that won the legislative elections is the leftist movement in all its spectrums, while the government presidency returned to the right-wing movement, including the extremist wing, which indicates the strength of the setback that France’s image in the world has suffered, as it tries every time to give lessons to other regimes when it comes to elections and the transfer of power in third world countries.

No matter how much politicians in France try to justify what will happen in the future, they will not be able to convince anyone, because democratic traditions require allowing the winning party or bloc to form a government, and when it fails to do so, it is transferred to the party that ranked second in the elections, as happened in Spain, where Alberto Núñez Vallejo was assigned, as the head of the “People’s Party” that won the legislative elections, and when he failed to gain the confidence of Parliament, the second option was chosen, represented by Pedro Sanchez, who returned to the government because he succeeded in achieving the required quorum, so he returned to the government despite losing the elections, and therefore the issue in Spain did not turn into a political scandal as is happening today in France.

Media reports from Paris indicate that the French Prime Minister-designate will prioritize the fight against immigration, and will even make an extreme and unprecedented decision to halt immigration for a period ranging between three and five years. This is considered a far-right approach that the National Rally party, founded by the Le Pen family decades ago and represented by the National Front, has long advocated. In this way, he is imposing a far-right program on French society, even though the majority of the voters chose the left-wing program that strongly defends immigration and immigrants. So what lessons of democracy does France possess to offer to the other countries of the world?