French President Francois Hollande can run but he cannot hide as he asks the country’s Prime Minister Manuel Valls to form a new cabinet with ministers who possess a milder temperament. And those who desist from questioning the government’s economic policies.
France is facing a high rate of unemployment and low growth. Someone has to fix this. Forming a cabinet minus Socialist dissidents — who demand an end to economic austerity policies — is not a foolproof solution. Former economy minister Arnaud Montebourg was dismissed from his post because he criticised the government’s austerity policies and this led to the resignation of the entire cabinet. The president is now firefighting to save his own floundering credibility. France’s economic woes are now surmounted by a political crisis and many of the state’s bunglings have been linked to Hollande’s vacillation when it comes to decision-making.
The country’s current crisis mirrors the dismal economic picture in Europe. The French prime minister may choose a cabinet with softer voices but it is a gamble. Coupled with that are Hollande’s own popularity ratings at home — at 17 per cent they are the worst for a French president in living memory — and in Europe.
It is expected that Valls will win a confidence vote in the National Assembly, simply because the members don’t want to dissolve parliament, despite there being an ideological shift. But it does not mean that Hollande is out of the woods yet.
