PARIS –
French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged in his New Year’s address to the nation on Tuesday that his decision to dissolve parliament, throwing France into a political crisis, was counterproductive.
“I must acknowledge tonight that the dissolution has brought, for the moment, more division in the (National) Assembly than solutions for the French,” he said, adding that “I assume my full support.”
It was the closest the French leader came to apologizing for his June decision that triggered early legislative elections. They produced a hung parliament, with the National Assembly roughly divided between three strongly opposed main blocs, none with a majority to govern alone.
Since then, Macron has had to rotate between three prime ministers (Gabriel Attal, followed by Michel Barnier, followed by the current prime minister, François Bayrou), in an effort to find a consensus builder who can overcome parliamentary divisions, pass a budget for 2025 and avoid the risk of another government collapse.
Macron expressed hope that lawmakers will form ad hoc majorities to pass laws, saying “our government should be able to follow a path of compromise to get things done.”
His speech began on a lighter note: returning to the Paris Olympics and Paralympics, which temporarily took the focus off France’s political problems.
“Together this year we have shown that the impossible is not French,” said Macron, commenting on video highlights of the Games. “They showed a France full of audacity and panache, madly free,” he said.
Macron also celebrated the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, splendidly rebuilt after the catastrophic fire that toppled its spire and turned its roof to ashes in 2019. He called the rebuilt monument “the symbol of our French will.”
Some of the revelers who flocked to Paris’ Champs-Elysees boulevard to watch a spectacle of music, videos and fireworks that marked the beginning of the year 2025 said they hope for a brighter outlook for France.
“It has been complicated: the dissolution of Parliament, the somewhat chaotic state of things and the current climate with the war in Ukraine and everything that is happening in the world. “It’s a little nerve-wracking,” said Xavier Lepouze, who traveled with his wife, Angelique, from the Normandy region, west of Paris.
“We would love to have peace and calm,” he said. “Seeing joy and happiness in people’s minds and on people’s faces, because you can feel that everyone is in a bad mood on a daily basis, so there is a real need for positivity.”
