Gavin Mortimer

Emmanuel Macron is said to be appalled by his new right-wing government. A confidant of the French president conveyed to AFP the depth of his despair. ‘I did not choose this government,’ Macron reportedly told his inner circle. ‘They make me feel ashamed.’ Macron’s approval rating has fallen to its lowest level of his second term There’s little doubt who Macron had in mind when he made his cri du coeur: Bruno Retailleau, the interior minister, a conservative Catholic, who has vowed to crackdown on immigration. Macron hit back at Retailleau last week during a radio interview on France Inter, pointing out that immigration is ‘our wealth, a strength’. He gave a couple of examples: the scientist Marie Curie and crooner Charles Aznavour.

In the same week that over 1,000 migrants arrived in England, the head of MI5 admitted his agency had ‘one hell of a job’ on its hands. Ken McCallum said that while there is a threat from Russia, China and Iran, it was Islamist terrorism ‘that concerns me most’. In particular, al-Qaida and the Islamic State, specifically their Afghan affiliate Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), members of which slaughtered 137 Russians in a Moscow concert hall earlier this year. McCallum’s analysis is almost identical to that of Céline Berthon, the director-general of the DGSI, the French equivalent of MI5. She also namechecked the two Islamist terror groups in an interview last month, warning that this year she had noted a ‘fairly strong resurgence of the threat’.

France’s Interior Minister is the tough-talking Bruno Retailleau. In his inaugural declaration a fortnight ago, he hammered out his three priorities: ‘The first is to re-establish order, the second is to re-establish order, and the third is to re-establish order.’ Standing behind Retailleau was Gerald Darmanin, the man he was replacing as France’s ‘top cop’. He was also tough-talking but, like the interior ministers before him, the rhetoric had little effect on the violent lawlessness that has reached into every nook and cranny of the Republic.

It is a year almost to the day since a French schoolteacher was killed by a young Islamist. Dominque Bernard, a high school teacher in Arras, died almost exactly three years after another teacher, Samuel Paty, was slain in similar circumstances and by the same ideology. A memorial service this week will remember Bernard; on Monday, schools across France will observe a minute’s silence in honour of the two teachers. The silence is unlikely to be universally respected. It wasn’t last year, when a minute’s silence for Bernard was interrupted by 357 ‘incidents’ in the schools and colleges of France.

Emmanuel Macron has chosen to mark the first anniversary of Hamas’ murderous attack on Israel on 7 October by criticising their response. In a radio interview, the president of France announced that ‘the priority today is to return to a political solution, to stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza’. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the remarks shameful and said it was a ‘disgrace’ to call for an arms embargo on Israel. 1,600 French Jews have emigrated from France to Israel in the last year The distinguished French Jewish writer and philosopher, Bernard-Henri Levy, said on Sunday that he was ‘saddened and shocked’ by his president’s comments, particularly given their timing.

Prime Minister Michel Barnier addressed parliament on Tuesday afternoon as he outlined his government’s policy programme. The priority, explained Barnier, was to tackle France’s ‘colossal’ debt of 3.2 trillion (£2.7 trillion) euros, which has left the Republic with the ‘sword of Damocles hanging over the head of France and every French person’.  The gravity of the crisis still doesn’t seem to be getting through to many MPs, who continue to behave like spoiled brats Barnier declared his intention to reduce the public deficit from 6 per cent of GDP to 5 per cent by next year, and to 3 per cent by 2029 – two years beyond the 2027 deadline imposed by the EU.

In a country that has become accustomed to atrocities in the last decade, the brutal murder of a 19-year-old student has outraged France. The body of the young woman, named only as Philippine, was discovered last Saturday in the Bois de Boulogne, a famous park in the west of Paris. She had gone missing on Friday afternoon, shortly after eating lunch in her university canteen.  ‘I want to speak out to warn women that we are no longer safe in France, even in a neighbourhood we think is safe’ On Tuesday evening, the authorities in Geneva, acting on information provided by French police, arrested a man as he arrived on a train from Annecy. The man in custody is a 22-year-old Moroccan who had entered France from Spain on June 13, 2019 on a tourist visa.

There was a vigorous interview on Tuesday morning on a prominent French radio station. The guest was Jean-Philippe Tanguy, a senior MP in Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, and the last question put to him concerned his leader’s impending trial on charges of financial impropriety. Tanguy had on two occasions to remind the presenter to stick to the conditional tense when talking about the charges; his interlocutor made it sound as if Le Pen was guilty until proven innocent. She will be joined the dock in Paris next week by 26 other members of the National Rally, including Louis Aliot, the mayor of Perpignan.

Emmanuel Macron’s new government marks, in the words of the BBC, ‘a decisive shift to the right’. That is also the view of Le Monde, the newspaper of the French left, which quotes Socialist party chairman Oliver Faure's description of it as 'a reactionary government that gives democracy the finger'. This government is not right wing. To quote Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, ‘this “new” government marks the return of Macronism through a back door.’ Eighteen of the 39 ministers are Macronists including those responsible for education, finance, foreign affairs, Europe and defence.

France can’t go on like this. The country, and its overseas territories, are in chaos. On Wednesday night two men in New Caledonia were shot dead by security forces after a confrontation on the Pacific Island. The insurgency began in May and shows no sign of abating with the rebels determined to gain their independence from France. In total, 13 people have been killed and the damaged caused in the uprising is estimated to be 2.2 billion euros (£1.85 billion) and rising. French media report that Barnier is reaching the end of his tether with Macron Meanwhile, the Caribbean island of Martinique was placed under curfew on Wednesday after rioting erupted over rising prices.

Diane Abbott believes that Giorgia Meloni is a ‘literal fascist’. That must come as a surprise to the 12.3 million voters who elected her prime minister of Italy two years ago. Not to mention King Charles, who hosted Meloni at Blenheim Palace in July. The Right Honourable Member for Hackney North and Stoke Newington described Meloni as a fascist as Keir Starmer jetted to Italy this week to meet the country's leader. ‘What does he hope to learn from her,’ asked Abbott. Perhaps the British premier would like to hear how Meloni has this year reduced immigrant arrivals on Italian territory by 65 per cent. Is this the behaviour of a fascist regime?

Michel Barnier will unveil his government in France this week, a fortnight after the 73-year-old was nominated by Emmanuel Macron as the fifth prime minister of his presidency. It will be a government composed overwhelmingly of people from Barnier’s own party, the centre-right Republicans, and Macron’s centrist coalition. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally have ruled themselves out of contention for any posts, as have most political figures from the left. They may be out of touch with the rest of France but they don’t care It is a curious state of affairs that the Republican party, which won just 47 of the 577 seats in July’s parliamentary election, is now at the heart of government.

The French left took to the streets on Saturday to protest against the appointment of Michel Barnier as prime minister. The 73-year conservative was nominated by Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, sixty days after the left-wing New Popular Front coalition won the most seats in the parliamentary election. There were dozens of demonstrations across France. The one I attended in Paris was the largest: the organisers, the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) claimed that 160,000 people descended on the Place de la Bastille. The police put the figure at 26,000. I’d say the police had it right.