Macron hasn’t an overall majority in the assembly but has the biggest group. If I were him I would have made Melenchon PM and had a minister reshuffle as those idiots he so likes are idiots.
Macron’s desperation to keep all the control will make for interesting times there’s 2 big groups who are just itching to put spanners in the works. Of course foreign policy won’t change, the president traditionally has control of that.
Of course NUPES is arguing over everything and anything but that’s how things have always been.
I wanted to see whether the Minister of the Interior, Gerald Darmanin, kept his seat given the Champions League final fiasco only to see that he’s not apparently been elected at all?
I found that very surprising but maybe I don’t understand his position, which I though was some sort of government Home Office post? Is it a civil service position?
I could very well be wrong here, but I don’t think it’s a necessity to be a member of parliament to be appointed minister in France…?
I guess that’s right. There have been a couple of occasions in the UK too. Mandelson was Minister without Portfolio under Blair without being elected and members of the House of Lords can serve in ministerial positions, most commonly (from a historical perspective) that of Lord Chancellor.
But is Darmanin’s position equivalent to the UK role of Home Secretary? I can’t remember the last time that position was held by someone not elected to the Commons. Probably over a hundred years ago. I think that would be a scandal on a par with Johnson appointing his mistress as his chief of staff.
Maybe I’ve misunderstood Darmanin’s role?
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You don’t necessarily have to be a member of the Bundestag to be a minister in Germany either, so… maybe just different political traditions?
Indeed. It’s intriguing what does and does not exercise the disapproval of political press and/or electorates from country to country.
That kind of thing is very common in the States. Trump had all kinds of cronies and campaign contributors in his cabinet. The idea is that you bring in experts from the field, but when you get Betsy DeVos in charge of education, there is something seriously wrong.
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Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t it the case that even the Prime Minister doesn’t have to be a Member of Parliament, but it’s just a matter of convention?
You mean there’s hope for me yet?
I don’t know…could be the case!
Different forms of government though. Members of congress are prohibited from taking a position with the executive branch (the president’s cabinet). It is not uncommon to nominate a sitting member of congress but if they take the role they have to resign from congress and a special election is held to replace them. There is political risk to the party by opening up a seat to a special election, but the trade off also is rarely a good one for the individual because all but about 3 roles are fairly low profile.
Not much attention being paid to the continuing massacres in Mali.
Not an European problem
I have literally not heard anything about it until now and I’m fairly aware of the news…
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Yes. 130+ innocent civilians butchered and it doesn’t even get a mention?
Even looking it up specifically, I can’t seem to find any reference to it in English language media in general.
Absolute disgrace.
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I listen to a world affairs podcast that often talks about current affairs in Africa. Over the past couple of years they have covered Yemen extensively (not in Africa but you get the point), and the conflict in South Sudan. They have mentioned the issue in Mali a couple of times, but never in any sort of depth.
Sadly the loss of even 200 lives in Africa is dwarfed by East African famine