Macron must go – French MEP to RT

The president is the source of the political chaos in the country, Thierry Mariani has claimed

French President Emmanuel Macron should resign if he has self-respect and wants what is best for the country, MEP Thierry Mariani has told RT.

This week, Macron accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Michel Barnier, who was forced out of office by a parliamentary vote of no confidence. The president was able to appoint him in September despite his party’s loss in a snap general election over the summer.

Barnier is the third French prime minister to have lost his job this year, and “little by little, all the French realize that the solution for this situation is not changing the prime minister,” Mariani said.

”The only problem is the president himself,” the lawmaker, who previously served in the French national parliament and in the cabinet during Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency, told RT.

Amid the crisis, Macron has declared that he will stay in office for the rest of his term, which expires in 2027. Legally speaking, there is very little the parliament could do to make him go, Mariani said. But historic precedent favors an early resignation, he pointed out, citing the example of Charles de Gaulle, who refused to remain president after a political reform that he proposed was rejected during a referendum in 1958.

“If Emmanuel Macron wants to serve France best, he should resign,” the politician urged. “If he has just a little respect for himself, he should go.”