This is what he declared to the “Journal du dimanche” alluding to the words he used during the transfer of power.
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Barely arrived at Matignon and a first controversy? “I come from below, there is no ambiguity”declared Michel Barnier in the columns of Sunday newspaper from September 8th. “I’m from below”repeated the new Prime Minister three times during a meeting with the weekly, referring to the “associative activism” of his mother, and his father “small entrepreneur”.
During the handover of power with Gabriel Attal, Michel Barnier spoke of the “people from below” that it was necessary to listen and respect.
Michel Barnier was immediately criticised by a section of the left for using these terms. “The ‘people below’ do not exist. The contemptuous ones do. Barnier is one of them, clearly”wrote the communist senator Ian Brossat on X. “Barnier’s first speech, first class contempt. Hatred of the people as a political compass”judged LFI MP Thomas Portes on the same social network.
The phrase was also written on placards on Saturday during protests against the “coup de force” Emmanuel Macron. Some 110,000 people marched across France according to the Interior Ministry, 300,000 according to the organizers.
