‘Unlike de Gaulle, Macron doesn't incarnate French nation’

Macron has much more power than Donald Trump, and that is an institutional crisis as the French president is too weak for his legitimacy and too strong with his powers, journalist Aymeric Monville told RT.

The French national assembly rejected a motion of no-confidence in the government on Thursday which was tabled in the wake of mass Yellow Vest protests across the country. 

RT discussed the failed no-confidence vote with French publisher and journalist Aymeric Monville. In his opinion, the French parliament's decision to reject the motion of no-confidence was a predictable result.

“This parliament was elected just after the victory of Macron in the presidential election. Because of the reversal of the electoral calendar roughly 20 years ago the parliament is elected after the president. It has strengthened the presidential character of Constitution. The problem is this parliament doesn't represent real France anymore,” he explained.

Earlier, the French government urged people to hold off on protests amid security concerns after the Strasbourg attack. “Unfortunately, in France we are used to seeing this kind of violence on the streets especially since 2015 – since NATO made this link with the Islamist radicals in Syria. The only way to stop it is to stop this alliance with NATO,” he said.

He underlined that protesters are “completely against this kind of violence” and “will wear a black ribbon next Saturday.” However, people will keep demonstrating “because it is about their lives, it is about their living standards.”

“You have people who can't just simply make ends meet, who can't put fuel or gas in order to see their grandmothers at the weekends because they have only the fuel in order to go to work. They simply cannot live this way,” Monville said.

The opposition claims Macron's government has worsened the inequality problem in France.

Commenting on the matter, Monville noted that the problem is not just the economic crisis, but also the “institutional crisis because Macron was elected by default.”

“He was elected by people, there was a two-round election and people were against the far-right candidate because of anti-fascism. They were able to vote for Mr. Macron, even if he is representative of high finance, big banker,” Monville explained.

In his opinion, “whether you are opposition from the left or opposition from the right, you have people who cannot get along together” and “the only thing they have in common is that they want to get rid of Macron.”

He added that unlike the US, there’s not much power sharing between the president and the parliament in France. “Macron has much more power than Donald Trump who always has Congress against him. That is an institutional crisis because Macron is too weak for his legitimacy, too strong with his powers,” he said.

Suggesting a possible solution Monville said that the constitution should be amended and made “much more parliamentary…not this kind of Bonapartist Constitution that was made by de Gaulle.”

“Maybe it was good for de Gaulle because he incarnated, at that time, the nation. Nowadays it cannot work like that anymore,” he concluded.

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