French Government May Signal Right, but Establishment Still Steers Left
28th September 2024
Laurence Garnier, a member of the LR party and the new Secretary of State for Consumer Affairs, has had to bear the brunt of this hidden censure. She was anticipated to take up the post of Minister for the Family, but in the end had to make do with a much more modest portfolio. Emmanuel Macron even made it known that he did not want her in the government. This was due to her vote against enshrining abortion in the constitution a few weeks ago, as well as her stance against gay marriage, medically assisted procreation (PMA) for women, and the ban on conversion therapies.
The left-wing newspaper Libération has launched a true witch hunt. On its front page, the paper denounced “the reactionary pact” and went looking into the past of members of the government to award them diplômes d’infréquentabilité—‘certifications of non-reliability.’ Patrick Hetzel, Minister for Higher Education, and Othman Nasrou—though loyal to the very centrist Valérie Pécresse—have been condemned for having, one or more times in their careers, expressed conservative views in favour of the family or a reasoned vision of bioethics.
But what is more serious is the pressure that the Left intends to exert from outside, now that the team is in place, to ensure the government’s ideological rectitude. Left-wing commentators on X are entertaining the fantasy of a resurgence of reactionary policies and worrying that societal ‘rights’—abortion, gay marriage, LGBT rights—might be called into question even though there has never been any question of this and, from our humble point of view, we can even deplore the timidity of the new ministers on these crucial issues. Planned Parenthood says it is “worried.” Former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal sent a very clear message to Michel Barnier: he took the liberty of asking for guarantees that there would be “no backtracking on PMA, abortion, or minority rights.” He said he was “personally offended” by the past positions of certain ministers.