Former French PM Gabriel Attal: 'I do not see a shared vision for society today between Les Républicains and us'
As secretary general of French President Emmanuel Macron's party Renaissance, and president of the Ensemble Pour La République group in the Assemblée Nationale, Gabriel Attal has caused unease within his own political family by defending positions – such as on Muslim girls wearing the veil – that have brought him closer to the right. With just under two years to go before the presidential election, the former prime minister (January to September 2024) clarifies his political stance.
How would you describe the current political moment?
French political life is creating more and more orphans. First, because it is no longer seen as a solution but as a problem, due to a terrible sense of widespread powerlessness. The risk is that democracy in crisis could turn, over time, into a "vetocracy," where nothing gets done because public action is blocked on all sides. This whole framework needs to be re-examined. Then, because the two so-called "governing parties" – the Parti Socialiste (PS, left) and Les Républicains (LR, right wing) – have in recent weeks chosen a path of radicalization. They have buried their ability to bring together a majority of French people. On one side, the left has chosen political submission to the La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left); on the other, the right is drifting into intellectual alignment with the Rassemblement National (RN, far right).
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
40 minutes ago
- France 24
India accused of illegal deportations targeting Muslims
New Delhi says the people deported are undocumented migrants. The Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long taken a hardline stance on immigration -- particularly those from neighbouring Muslim-majority Bangladesh -- with top officials referring to them as "termites" and "infiltrators". It has also sparked fear among India's estimated 200 million Muslims, especially among speakers of Bengali, a widely spoken language in both eastern India and Bangladesh. "Muslims, particularly from the eastern part of the country, are terrified," said veteran Indian rights activist Harsh Mander. "You have thrown millions into this existential fear." Bangladesh, largely encircled by land by India, has seen relations with New Delhi turn icy since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled Dhaka's government, a former friend of India. But India also ramped up operations against migrants after a wider security crackdown in the wake of an attack in the west -- the April 22 killing of 26 people, mainly Hindu tourists, in Indian-administered Kashmir. New Delhi blamed that attack on Pakistan, claims Islamabad rejected, with arguments culminating in a four-day conflict that left more than 70 dead. Indian authorities launched an unprecedented countrywide security drive that has seen many thousands detained -- and many of them eventually pushed across the border to Bangladesh at gunpoint. 'Do not dare' Rahima Begum, from India's eastern Assam state, said police detained her for several days in late May before taking her to the Bangladesh frontier. She said she and her family had spent their life in India. "I have lived all my life here -- my parents, my grandparents, they are all from here," she said. "I don't know why they would do this to me." Indian police took Begum, along with five other people, all Muslims, and forced them into swampland in the dark. "They showed us a village in the distance and told us to crawl there," she told AFP. "They said: 'Do not dare to stand and walk, or we will shoot you.'" Bangladeshi locals who found the group then handed them to border police who "thrashed" them and ordered they return to India, Begum said. "As we approached the border, there was firing from the other side," said the 50-year-old. "We thought: 'This is the end. We are all going to die.'" She survived, and, a week after she was first picked up, she was dropped back home in Assam with a warning to keep quiet. 'Ideological hate campaign' Rights activists and lawyers criticised India's drive as "lawless". "You cannot deport people unless there is a country to accept them," said New Delhi-based civil rights lawyer Sanjay Hegde. Indian law does not allow for people to be deported without due process, he added. Bangladesh has said India has pushed more than 1,600 people across its border since May. Indian media suggests the number could be as high as 2,500. The Bangladesh Border Guards said it has sent back 100 of those pushed across -- because they were Indian citizens. India has been accused of forcibly deporting Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, with navy ships dropping them off the coast of the war-torn nation. Many of those targeted in the campaign are low-wage labourers in states governed by Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to rights activists. Indian authorities did not respond to questions about the number of people detained and deported. But Assam state's chief minister has said that more than 300 people have been deported to Bangladesh. Separately, Gujarat's police chief said more than 6,500 people have been rounded up in the western state, home to both Modi and interior minister Amit Shah. Many of those were reported to be Bengali-speaking Indians and later released. "People of Muslim identity who happen to be Bengali speaking are being targeted as part of an ideological hate campaign," said Mander, the activist. Nazimuddin Mondal, a 35-year-old mason, said he was picked up by police in the financial hub of Mumbai, flown on a military aircraft to the border state of Tripura and pushed into Bangladesh. He managed to cross back, and is now back in India's West Bengal state, where he said he was born. "The Indian security forces beat us with batons when we insisted we were Indians," said Mondal, adding he is now scared to even go out to seek work.
Euronews
2 hours ago
- Euronews
WATCH: Will EU Commission buckle to France on green targets?
After Thursday's European Council summit in Brussels French President Emmanuel Macron called for the European Commission to slam the brakes on publishing ambitious climate targets for 2040. Today live in the studio on Euronews' morning show Europe Today we'll be quizzing Teresa Ribera, the European Commission's powerful Executive Vice-President for a Clean, Just and Competitive Transition. She's been tasked with presenting those 2040 targets on Wednesday next week - so is she now prepared to listen to the French president and take them off the agenda? Watch Euronews' Meabh McMahon quiz Ribera live at 8am. We'll bring you up to speed with all the other developments at the summit on Thursday, where - with the clock ticking down on a deadline for the EU to reach a deal with US on tariffs - differences emerged over how to negotiate the deal. Follow live on Euronews at 8am.
France 24
3 hours ago
- France 24
EU leaders mull new US trade proposals ahead of Trump tariffs deadline
European Union leaders discussed new proposals from the United States on a trade deal at a summit in Brussels on Thursday, with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen not ruling out tariff talks could fail and saying "all options remain on the table". Time is running out for the bloc to find a common position before a respite on higher tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump expires on July 9, which could hammer exporters from cars to pharmaceuticals. European leaders were meeting to decide whether they want to push for a quick trade agreement or keep fighting for a better deal, with the EU's two biggest economies apparently at odds. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz urged the EU to do a "quick and simple" trade deal rather than a "slow and complicated" one. But in a separate briefing, French President Emmanuel Macron, while also wanting a quick and pragmatic trade deal, said his country would not accept terms that were not balanced. All tools must be used to ensure a fair deal and if the US baseline rate of 10% remained in place, then Europe's response would have to have an equivalent impact, he said. "Our goodwill should not be seen as a weakness," Macron added. French officials have argued that the Commission should take a firmer stance including by targeting US services. Similarly, Merz said European leaders were "basically united" on concluding the Mercosur trade deal with the South American trade bloc, but Macron said he could not support the deal in its current form. Von der Leyen said the EU had received the latest US document on Thursday for further negotiations and the bloc was still assessing it. "We are ready for a deal. At the same time, we are preparing for the possibility that no satisfactory agreement is reached," she told reporters. "In short, all options remain on the table." No specifics were immediately available on the document, which one EU diplomat described as a "two-pager, principle agreement", adding the United States did not want to get into specific industrial sectors. The bloc is already subject to US import tariffs of 50% on its steel and aluminium, 25% for cars and car parts along with the 10% tariff on most other EU goods that Trump has threatened could rise to 50% without an agreement. The European Union has agreed, but not imposed, tariffs on 21 billion euros ($24.55 billion) of US goods and is debating a further package of tariffs on up to 95 billion euros of US imports. Among the EU rebalancing options is a tax on digital advertising, which would hit US giants like Alphabet Inc's Google, Meta, Apple, X and Microsoft and eat into the trade surplus in services the US has with the EU. The EU leaders also discussed ideas to carve out a new form of trade cooperation with Asia-Pacific countries that would be a way of reforming what they see as an ineffective World Trade Organisation. Merz said the idea was in its early stages but could include mechanisms to resolve disputes, as the WTO was meant to do. "You all know that the WTO doesn't work any more," he said. 'Clear political message' The EU summit pivots from a NATO meeting this week that agreed to drastically raise defence spending in the military alliance but left some European countries finding it difficult to pay, and Spain explicitly demanding an opt-out. Aside from tariffs, the EU bloc also has to tackle a raft of other issues, including its support for Ukraine and the prospect of EU membership for a country still at war against nuclear-armed Russia. Hungary is firmly opposed. 25:01 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had urged the EU to pass a new sanctions package on Russia targeting its oil trade and banks, as well as to give a clear signal on his country's EU accession. "What's needed now is a clear political message – that Ukraine is firmly on the European path, and that Europe stands by its promises," he told EU leaders. "Any delay by Europe at this point could create a global precedent – a reason to doubt Europe's words and commitments." On the sidelines of the summit, EU leaders also sought to allay the concerns of Slovakia and Hungary over ending their access to Russian gas as foreseen by the EU's plan to phase out all Russian gas imports by the end of 2027. Before the start of the summit however, Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico said he would block a vote on the EU's 18th package of sanctions against Russia until Slovak concerns on gas were addressed.
