Instead of looking into the growing problem of radicalised no-go areas, French president Emmanuel Macron and his Republic on the Move (LREM) party alloted an equal number of women and men to the initial list of candidates with some 47 percent of the newly elected deputies being women — the highest majority out of all the parties.
In terms of gender diversity, France just moved from 64th to 17th place, while advancing to sixth place for Europe, beating Germany and Britain, according to Reuters. But will it solve France’s economic woes?
The country is facing low growth, the structural decline in industry and the best part a decade of mass unemployment. An Ipsos Mori poll has found that 6 million Macron voters did not want Macron’s En Marche party to form a majority in the assembly elections on 11 and 18 June.
In the 2012 elections, ten of the five hundred and seventy-seven seats in France’s National Assembly were won by nonwhite candidates—an increase of only eight seats. Despite Macron promising a more immigrant-friendly face, he has mostly promoted women in what is becoming a charm offensive to mask his proposed unpopular economic reforms.
Ethnic minorities were only slightly better represented: 35 lawmakers compared with ten in the previous legislature, according to France 24 TV.
France instead elected a record number of women to its Parliament in the second round of parliamentary voting. Women now fill 223 of the 577 positions in the National Assembly, the French lower house of Parliament, the BBC reported. In 2012, according to data from the Inter-parliamentary Union, only 26 percent were represented. Now it has jumped to 39 percent.
Former Green politician Francois de Rugy, the new speaker of the National Assembly in a role that influences parliament‘s agenda, said in his opening speech that the record low turnout of less than 50 percent was a huge challenge. “For the first time in the Fifth Republic’s history, we were elected by a minority of French people.”
Socialist Party head Jean-Christophe Cambadelis said on Twitter that the fragmentation of the National Assembly into eight political groups was “a recipe for crisis”.
Macron has proposed reforming the eurozone to create a real fiscal union, with the 19 countries using the euro to have one single budget process and one single finance minister. He also wants a separate eurozone parliament to ensure that decisions over these common fiscal matters are implemented.
But German politicians know it will require rewriting the EU treaties which means national approvals, including referendums in some countries.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has warned that Macron’s reforms would require treaty changes, and this was “not realistic” at a time when Europe is hit by a surge of anti-euro sentiment.
Macron fought the election calling for globalist neo-liberal reforms. But he will be facing minorities – not women – as in the Nuit debout movement, lasting throughout much of 2016, which saw mass demonstrations of youths and workers and widespread rioting against reforms to Labour laws.