French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte Macron.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

French President Emmanuel Macron has acknowledged in his New Year’s address to the nation that his decision to dissolve parliament, casting France into a political crisis, backfired.

“I must recognise tonight that the dissolution has, for the moment, brought more division in the [National] Assembly than solutions for the French,” he said on Tuesday, adding that “I take my full part for that.”

It was as close as the French leader has come to apologising for his decision in June that triggered early legislative elections. They produced a hung parliament, with the National Assembly roughly split among three sharply opposed main blocks — none with a majority to govern alone.

Mr. Macron has since had to rotate through three Prime Ministers — with Gabriel Attal followed by Michel Barnier followed by the current premier, François Bayrou — in an effort to find a consensus-builder who might be able to bridge parliamentary divisions, pass a 2025 budget and stave off the risk of another governmental collapse.

Mr. Macron expressed hope that lawmakers will form ad hoc majorities to pass legislation and said “our government should be able to follow a path of compromise to get things done.”

His address started on a lighter note — casting back to the Olympic Games and Paralympics in Paris that temporarily shifted the focus from France’s political woes.

“Together this year, we proved that impossible isn’t French,” Mr. Macron said, voicing over video highlights from the Games. They “showed a France full of audacity and panache, crazily free,” he said.

Mr. Macron also celebrated the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, splendidly rebuilt from the catastrophic fire that brought down its spire and turned its roof into ashes in 2019. He called the rebuilt monument “the symbol of our French will.”

Some of the revellers who flocked to Paris’ Champs-Elysées boulevard for a music, video and fireworks show ushering in 2025 said they hope for a brighter outlook for France.

“It’s been complicated: parliament being dissolved, the somewhat chaotic state of things and the current climate with the war in Ukraine and everything that’s happening in the world. It’s a bit anxiety-inducing,” said Xavier Lepouze, who travelled with his wife, Angelique, from the Normandy region west of Paris.

“We’d love to have peace, calm,” she said. “To see joy and happiness in people’s minds and on their faces, because you can feel that everyone is morose on a daily basis, so there’s a real need for positivity.”

Paris:

The French parliament on Thursday agreed to create a commission of inquiry to investigate sexual and gender-based violence in cinema and other cultural sectors after several recent allegations.

The National Assembly, or lower house, unanimously agreed to set up the commission demanded by actor Judith Godreche in a speech to the upper house, the Senate, in February.

The 52-year-old actor and director has become a key figure in France’s MeToo movement since accusing directors Benoit Jacquot and Jacques Doillon of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. Both have denied the allegations.

All 52 lawmakers present for the vote approved the creation of the commission, watched by Godreche, who was present in the public gallery in the chamber.

“It’s time to stop laying out the red carpet for abusers,” said Greens lawmaker Francesca Pasquini.

The new commission is to look into “the condition of minors in the various sectors of cinema, television, theatre, fashion and advertising”, as well as that of adults working in them, it said.

On the basis of Godreche’s proposal, a parliamentary commission on culture decided to extend the scope of the inquiry to also include other cultural sectors.

It is to “identify the mechanisms and failings that allow these potential abuses and violences”, “establish responsibilities” and make recommendations.

The parliament vote comes a day after actor Isild Le Besco, 41, said in an autobiography she was also “raped” by Jacquot during a relationship that started when she was 16 but was not ready to press charges.

Godreche, by contrast, has filed a legal complaint against the prominent arthouse director, over alleged abuse that occurred during a relationship that began when she was 14 and he was 25 years her senior.

She has also formally accused Doillon of abusing her as a 15-year-old actress in a film he directed.

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