French and Riviera News Friday 6th September 2024

National News

France has a new Prime Minister - France has a new Prime Minister, after 51 days of waiting right-wing politician Michel Barnier was appointed Prime Minister on Thursday. Barnier has vowed to address the nation’s feelings of anger, abandonment and injustice, promising a “new era” and a break with the past. Barnier, the EU’s former Brexit negotiator, took office hours after French President Emmanuel Macron appointed him to form “a unifying government in the service of the country”. He said that the government’s priority would be education, as well as security and controlling immigration. At 73 he is the oldest premier in the history of modern France.

Meanwhile, Michel Barnier’s appointment was greeted with dismay by the left which will now seek to topple him with a no-confidence motion. However, Macron appears to be counting on Le Pen’s National Rally to keep Barnier in power by voting against a no-confidence motion. The National Rally indicated on Thursday it would not automatically vote down Barnier and would wait and see what sort of programme he laid out in his first address to parliament.

Local News

Drugs network dismantled – In local news, an international investigation conducted by the judicial police in Nice has dismantled a criminal drugs network seizing 58kg of cocaine arriving from Spain on August 15th on the French-Spanish border. After several months of international investigation an Albanian criminal network flood