French President Emmanuel Macron has unveiled his new government almost three months after a snap general election delivered a hung parliament.
The long-awaited new line up, led by Prime Minister Michel Barnier, marks a decisive shift to the right, even though a left-wing alliance won most parliamentary seats.
It comes as the European Union puts France on notice over its spiralling debt, which now far exceeds EU rules.
Among those gaining a position in the new cabinet is Bruno Retailleau, a key member of the conservative Republicans Party founded by former president Nicolas Sarkozy.
Just one left-wing politician was given a post in the cabinet, independent Didier Migaud, who was appointed as justice minister.
France’s public-sector deficit is projected to reach around 5.6% of GDP this year and go over 6% in 2025. The EU has a 3% limit on deficits.
Michel Barnier, a veteran conservative, was named as Macron’s prime minister earlier this month.
Members of the left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front (NFP) have threatened a no-confidence motion in the new government.
Far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon called for the new government to “be got rid of” as soon as possible.
On Saturday, before the cabinet announcement, thousands of left-wing supporters demonstrated in Paris against the incoming government, arguing that the left’s performance in the election was not taken into consideration.
First of all, do you understand how time works? Your bunch of sources are years old, my source is months old. Maybe years ago everything is was fine, now it’s not.
But more importantly, you said civil unrest is an indication of a bad democracy and you brought up those two countries as examples of good democracy. Your excuses might explain why there are unrest, but they don’t invalidate the unrest. There’s still unrest in those countries which means a) unrest is not an indicator or b) those countries are not examples of good democracy.
What if I’m dyslexic? What if my phone auto corrected it and I didn’t notice? Why did I continue talking about it like I meant the other thing? It was an honest mistake on my part, but what is your excuse? Anyone actually paying attention would’ve questioned how did we get to “tangible benefits”. In fact that’s how I noticed my mistake in your response because unlike you I was actually paying attention to what you were saying. How do you excuse ignoring the wider context of what I was saying and focusing solely on the one thing that’s out of place? I can’t think of a single excuse where you don’t come out as a bad actor, which is probably why you’re name calling me instead of accepting fault. The sad troll here is you, getting caught with your pants down.
Yeah I understand how time works, that’s why I gave you list of sources that show historical progress over time. Not just a single event happening, but clear demonstration of long term trends. I guess that was just too complicated for you to wrap your head around.
Nah, that’s just a simplistic straw man you keep building instead of addressing what I actually said.
What if you started addressing the actual points being made instead of playing word games.
Except I didn’t ignore the wider context, I addressed your points and explained my position clearly.
Projection will always be the way of the liberal I suppose.
So as long as I give you similar data about France your protest argument doesn’t count?
Household income in the last 50 years can be found here
I can’t find the data on people living for less than $1 but you had another point about extreme poverty as well so we’ll cover it there.
The income of the poorest 20% in France is in line with China. Can’t link you the exact data but you can put it together in the same databank you referenced.
Amount of people living in extreme poverty in China and France
Home ownership is great in China and this is one place where France (and most western countries) can’t compete with.
I’m not sure how concrete usage matters here so I’m just not going to look for that data.
In terms of rail usage France seems to be doing just fine. In fact France seems to be doing pretty well in the public transit area
Unless you really want to hammer in on the housing based on what you’ve shown France is doing as well as China.
I’m just building on what you’ve said. If you feel like it’s a strawman, it’s because that’s the arguments you’ve given me.
Nope. If anything you ignored what I asked and gave me, at that point, irrelevant shit that you’re now trying to make relevant.
Does that mean you’re calling yourself liberal? Because you’re projecting I’m a liberal but I’m a socialist.
That’s an imbecilic argument given that France was in a far better starting position than China. What You have to look at is the progression over time, as I’ve explained this in the last reply. Evidently that went over your head. Household income is a perfect example here incidentally:
The raise in income for Chinese workers has been far more dramatic than for those in France. In fact, a typical Chinese adult is now richer than the typical European adult. https://archive.is/uzLgx
And the context for this, once again, is that China started from the state of utter devastation without any outside help after the revolution.
Incredible that you don’t understand how investment in infrastructure matters. Where do you think all this housing, roads, and so on, comes from exactly?
It’s because you either have low reading comprehension or you’re intentionally misrepresenting what I said by cherry picking and omitting context. Feel free to reread what was said to you until you actually understand the points being made.
I didn’t ignore anything you asked, but I guess you’ve already made it abundantly clear that you’re not trying to have a good faith discussion here.
No, I’m saying that you’re projecting your own behavior onto me here. The fact that you think you’re a socialist makes the whole thing even funnier though.
You’re comparing a country that was a developed country more than 50 years ago to a country that has been a developing country in the last 50 years. No shit one of them is going to show a lot of progress. It’s like comparing the progress a person does in the first 18 years of the life to the progress of someone from the age of 30 to 48.
You’re not proving China is somehow doing better than the western world, you’re proving that China is reaching the same standard as the western world.
Come back when you have an actual argument.
Except, China has already caught up to the west and there is still steady progress happening. Hence Chinese people now being richer than Europeans.
Once again, that reading comprehension really needs work. It’s frankly embarrassing. From my previous reply.
Perhaps take your own advice here.
Yes, the average Chinese adult is richer than the average European by a whooping 0.22%. How about you read your own articles dumbass. It’s literally an example of China reaching the standard of the western world.
EDIT. Forgot to bold a certain part so we can get back to that when you eventually start complaining about numbers again.
Absolutely hilarious how you continue to ignore where China started. Explain to us why we don’t see the same thing happening in India for example. Explain why the standard of living in China is improving more rapidly anywhere or any time in history. Meanwhile, also explain why the standard of living in Europe is declining. Pretty clear who the actual dumbass here is.
There’s a great article in HBR showing how India could become a significant global player by 2050 and what are the barriers that are preventing it. The same thing happening in India could be just a matter of time.
Foreign investment? Notice how the trend is almost identical with the household income you pointed at before
Source?