��������

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron named a new government on Sunday, putting together a team of largely familiar faces under Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu as he struggles to pull the country out of a political crisis.
The new cabinet lineup was unveiled nearly a month after the appointment of Lecornu, Macron’s seventh prime minister.
The latest premier risks being toppled by the opposition in a deeply divided parliament despite his efforts to obtain cross-party support, and opposition leaders on the right and left were livid on Sunday night.
Bruno Le Maire, who served as economy minister from 2017 to 2024, was named defense minister at a deeply sensitive time of tension with Russia over Ukraine.
Roland Lescure, a Macron loyalist, was named to take over the economy portfolio, with the difficult task of delivering an austerity budget plan for next year.
But many of the other key ministers kept their jobs.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot retained his post, the presidency said.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who has vowed to crack down on illegal immigration, and Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin both stayed put.
Rachida Dati, a scandal-ridden culture minister who is set to stand trial for corruption next year, also remained in place.
The presidency unveiled a total of 18 names, with more appointments to be announced at a later stage.

‘Procession of revenants’ 

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen said the new cabinet lineup was “pathetic.”
Jordan Bardella, the 30-year-old leader of Le Pen’s National Rally party, also mocked the government and reiterated the threat of censure.
“We made it clear to the prime minister: it’s either a break with the past or a vote of no confidence,” he said on X.

Bardella said the cabinet lineup was “decidedly all about continuity and absolutely nothing about breaking with the past.”
Le Pen, whose party senses its best chance to come to power, has said she is waiting to hear Lecornu’s general policy speech on Tuesday before deciding on any further course of action.
Boris Vallaud, head of Socialist lawmakers, accused Macron’s supporters of seeking to plunge France “further into chaos.”
“They lose elections but they govern. They don’t have a majority but refuse to compromise,” he said on X.
The head of the hard-left France Unbowed group, Jean-Luc Melenchon, slammed what he described as a “procession of revenants” mostly hailing from the right, which he said “will not last.”
“The countdown to get rid of them has begun,” he said on X.
Some opposition leaders have urged Macron to call snap legislative elections or even resign.
Macron, who has just 18 months left in power and is enduring his worst-ever popularity levels, has insisted he will serve out his term in full.

‘What a mess’ 

Lecornu might be toppled by the end of next week, Mujtaba Rahman, Europe director at risk analysis firm Eurasia Group, told AFP.
“His odds of surviving are dwindling,” he said. “The mood is darkening.”
Paul Taylor, a senior visiting fellow at the European Policy Center, said that French politics was increasingly driven by “anger and emotion rather than rationality.”
“If Lecornu fails, I don’t see much alternative to a dissolution,” he told AFP. “What a mess France is stuck in until 2027, and maybe longer.”

Lecornu’s two immediate predecessors, Francois Bayrou and Michel Barnier, were ousted in a legislative standoff over France’s austerity budget.
France’s public debt has reached a record high, official data showed last week.
France’s debt-to-GDP ratio is now the European Union’s third-highest after Greece and Italy, and is close to twice the 60 percent permitted under EU rules.
France has been mired in deadlock since Macron gambled on snap elections in the middle of last year in the hopes of bolstering his authority.
The move backfired, with voters electing a parliament fractured between three rival blocs.
In appointing Lecornu in early September, Macron plumped for one of his closest allies rather than seeking to broaden the appeal of the government across the political spectrum.
For the past month, the new prime minister has held a series of consultations with centrist allies and opposition leaders on the right and left in a bid to agree on a non-aggression pact in parliament and adopt the budget.
In recent days, he has announced a number of concessions, including a pledge not to ram his austerity budget through parliament without a vote, but opposition leaders said they wanted more.
 

WASHINGTON: Republican and Democratic lawmakers at an impasse on reopening the federal government provided few public signs Sunday of meaningful negotiations taking place to end what has so far been a five-day shutdown.
Leaders in both parties are betting that public sentiment has swung their way, putting pressure on the other side to cave. Democrats are insisting on renewing subsidies to cover health insurance costs for millions of households, while President Donald Trump wants to preserve existing spending levels and is threatening to permanently fire federal workers if the government remains closed.
The squabble comes at a moment of troubling economic uncertainty. While the US economy has continued to grow this year, hiring has slowed and inflation remains elevated as Trump’s import taxes have created a series of disruptions for businesses and hurt confidence in his leadership. At the same time, there is a recognition that the nearly $2 trillion annual budget deficit is financially unsustainable, yet there has to be a coalition around the potential tax increases and spending cuts to reduce borrowing levels.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, among those appearing on the Sunday news shows, said there have been no talks with Republican leaders since their White House meeting Monday.
“And, unfortunately, since that point in time, Republicans, including Donald Trump, have gone radio silent,” Jeffries said. “And what we’ve seen is negotiation through deepfake videos, the House canceling votes, and of course President Trump spending yesterday on the golf course. That’s not responsible behavior.”
Trump was asked via text message by CNN’s Jake Tapper about shutdown talks. The Republican president responded with confidence but no details.
“We are winning and cutting costs big time,” Trump said in a text message, according to CNN.
His administration sees the shutdown as an opening to wield greater power over the budget, with multiple officials saying they will save money as workers are furloughed by imposing permanent job cuts on thousands of government workers, a tactic that has never been used before.
Even though it would be Trump’s choice to cut jobs, he believes he can put the blame on the Democrats because of the shutdown.
“It’s up to them,” Trump told reporters on Sunday morning before boarding the presidential helicopter. “Anybody laid off that’s because of the Democrats.”
While Trump rose to fame on the TV show “The Apprentice” with its catchphrase of “You’re fired,” Republicans on Sunday claimed that the administration would take no pleasure in letting go federal workers, even though they have put funding on hold for infrastructure and energy projects in Democratic areas.
“We haven’t seen the details yet about what’s happening” with layoffs, House Speaker Mike Johnson said on NBC. “But it is a regrettable situation that the president does not want.”
Kevin Hassett, director of the White House National Economic Council, said the administration wants to avoid the layoffs. It had indicated they could start on Friday, a deadline that came and went without any decisions being announced.
“We want the Democrats to come forward and to make a deal that’s a clean, continuing resolution that gives us seven more weeks to talk about these things,” Hassett said on CNN. “But the bottom line is that with Republicans in control, the Republicans have a lot more power over the outcome than the Democrats.”
Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California defended his party’s stance on the shutdown, saying on NBC that the possible increase in health care costs for “millions of Americans” would make insurance unaffordable in what he called a “crisis.”
But Schiff also noted that the Trump administration has stopped congressionally approved spending from being used, essentially undermining the value of Democrats’ seeking compromises on the budget as the White House could decline to honor Congress’ wishes. The Trump administration sent Congress roughly $4.9 billion in ” pocket rescissions ” on foreign aid, a process that meant the spending was withheld without time for Congress to weigh in before the previous fiscal year ended last month.
“We need both to address the health care crisis and we need some written assurance in the law — I won’t take a promise — that they’re not going to renege on any deal we make,” Schiff said.
The television appearances indicated that Democrats and Republicans are busy talking, deploying Internet memes against each other that have raised concerns about whether it’s possible to negotiate in good faith.
Vice President JD Vance said a video putting Jeffries in a sombrero and thick mustache was simply a joke, even though it came across as mocking people of Mexican descent as Republicans insist that the Democratic demands would lead to health care spending on immigrants in the country illegally, a claim that Democrats dispute.
Immigrants in the US illegally are not eligible for any federal health care programs, including insurance provided through the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid. Still, hospitals do receive Medicaid reimbursements for emergency care that they are obligated to provide to people who meet other Medicaid eligibility requirements but do not have an eligible immigration status.
The challenge, however, is that the two parties do not appear to be having productive conversations with each other in private, even as Republicans insist they are in conversation with their Democratic colleagues.
On Friday, a Senate vote to advance a Republican bill that would reopen the government failed to notch the necessary 60 votes to end a filibuster. Johnson said the House would close for legislative business next week, a strategy that could obligate the Senate to work with the government funding bill that was passed by House Republicans.
“Johnson’s not serious about this,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on CBS. “He sent all his congressmen home last week and home this week. How are you going to negotiate?”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Sunday that the shutdown on discretionary spending, the furloughing of federal workers and requirements that other federal employees work without pay will go on so long as Democrats vote no.
“They’ll get another chance on Monday to vote again,” Thune said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“And I’m hoping that some of them have a change of heart,” he said.