Arnaud Bertrand writes on X: “It’s now official, in a just-released communiqué Macron has rejected a government led by the New Popular Front (NPF).

“It’s an unprecedented situation in the history of the 5th French Republic: the loser in the election effectively rejects yielding power to the winner.

“He explains it by the fact that his ‘responsibility is to ensure that the country be neither blocked nor weakened,’ arguing that were he to nominate a NPF government they’d soon be censored by parliament and destituded.

“That may be the case but still this awfully inconvenient fact remains: Macron’s party got way less votes and MPs than the NPF, yet it is Macron’s party that’s still running the French government, and it is Macron himself making choices on who can or cannot assume power based on what he thinks would ‘weaken France’ or not. It’s insane when you think about it.”

Mass protests have been called for Sept. 7.

Available for a limited number of interviews:

JEAN BRICMONT, jean.bricmont@uclouvain.be, @JeanBricmont
A noted author, academic and political commentator, Bricmont has been following the situation and splits his time between Paris and Brussels. His books include Humanitarian Imperialism: Using Human Rights to Sell War.

Edward Snowden posted on X: “The arrest of [Telegram CEO Pavel] @Durov is an assault on the basic human rights of speech and association. I am surprised and deeply saddened that Macron has descended to the level of taking hostages as a means for gaining access to private communications. It lowers not only France, but the world.”