The French president was accused of poaching from the hard-right playbook only a week after appointing Gabriel Attal, 34, the country's youngest prime minister, and naming a government that shifted into conservative territory.
Attal's premiership has had a stormy start, with the centre-left of Macron's party annoyed that eight of the 14 new ministers hail from the centre-right opposition Les Républicains party, including the culture minister, Rachida Dati.
Yesterday Dati, who is also mayor of the 7th arrondissement Paris's most expensive district-announced she would be running to become mayor of Paris in 2026.
At Tuesday evening's press conference at the Elysée Palace, which ran for two hours and was broadcast live across six channels to an estimated 8.7 million viewers, Macron spoke of "France remaining France", a slogan lifted from the hard-right 2022 presidential candidate, Éric Zemmour.
The president called for "civic values" in schools, with an emphasis on citizenship lessons and trials of uniforms for pupils who should also learn the national anthem.
This story is from the January 18, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the January 18, 2024 edition of The Guardian.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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