00:00 Let's bring in Paul Smith, associate professor in French and Francophone studies at the University
00:04 of Nottingham.
00:05 Hello to you, Paul.
00:06 How are you?
00:07 Thank you for joining us on the program.
00:09 What did you make of how Macron's tried to jumpstart this second term?
00:13 Well, I think it's very interesting that he's kept, despite a lot of rumors to the contrary,
00:19 he kept Elizabeth Born and announced that early on.
00:23 To me, it seems that one of the key changes isn't so much at the cabinet level, but bringing
00:28 in a new assistant, a new head of her cabinet, her personal cabinet, senior civil servant
00:35 Condor Excel, who's clearly been brought in.
00:39 He's come across from justice to move the whole kind of the relationship with the social
00:43 partners forward.
00:44 And that's a very important change.
00:46 But I think to go back to what Clovis was saying about the replacement of, and you were
00:51 saying about the replacement of the education minister and to be replaced by Atal, that's
00:55 a really key change.
00:58 A lot of us thought that the appointment of N'Day was quite an important one, symbolic,
01:04 but for various reasons on, you know, lots of different things coming into play here
01:08 that that hasn't worked.
01:10 Either the minister has failed to really energize the teachers in France, but also it's been
01:18 seen that there's the kind of the knee jerk response to the riots has been very much a
01:23 law and order response.
01:25 So I think that a lot of people see are reading it that way in particular.
01:29 Was this a reshuffle as simple as a motion battled ministers were let go and those closest
01:35 to Macron were rewarded?
01:37 Yeah, absolutely.
01:39 It's very much a it's a very political reshuffle in the sense of in the sense of obviously
01:45 reshuffles are political, but these are politicians that are being brought in.
01:49 A lot of comments been made about a number of people who were brought in in 2002 who
01:53 were from outside of politics, what a cool sort of civilian ministers, as it were.
01:58 They've gone.
01:59 They've been replaced by very much the Macron.
02:02 It's interesting that this is kind of nobody from the right of of Macron was was was replaced.
02:10 So very much a shift to the right.
02:12 Also suggestions that N'Day was was paying for outspoken comments he made about CNEWS,
02:19 this channel that's owned by by Bouloday as being a far right TV channel.
02:25 So there's kind of a stiffening of resolve there.
02:29 So lots of different factors, in fact, behind what looks like quite a superficial series
02:33 of changes.
02:34 Yeah.
02:35 And moving forward, the French government still needs to find a way to try to heal the
02:38 divisions in the country.
02:40 Macron said it himself.
02:41 The unrest we saw from last month's riots risked dividing the people.
02:45 Is this the right team to move forward, considering that some of the most high profile faces of
02:51 this government, which has had low approval ratings, are still in power?
02:55 Well, I mean, whether they're the right team or not is, you know, we'll have to wait and
03:00 see the point of appointing them now is that they've got the summer to to get on top of
03:04 their get on top of their briefs.
03:06 But whether the the appointment of Akhtar is interesting education, but we haven't changed
03:11 the interior minister.
03:13 The city's minister is coming under the interior ministry.
03:17 So is the overseas ministry.
03:18 So that's still very much Domino's province.
03:22 And although today Macron was talking a lot about also the importance of putting investment
03:29 into the idea of supporting young people who find themselves struggling with in particular,
03:35 you know, born here and families and so forth.
03:38 There's an awful lot of of proof of in the eating of the pudding that needs to be shown.
03:43 You know, there's a lot of rhetoric there.
03:45 But whether that will actually be delivered and nothing has been said, I suppose, you
03:50 know, Macron would say we leave that to the judicial process.
03:53 But nothing has been said about the situation with regard to to police violence.
03:58 That's you know, that's something that I think a lot of people in France, the public opinion
04:02 probably supported Macron's response.
04:05 There are also people in France thinking, you know, what's the what's the other side
04:09 of this coin?
04:10 Yeah, surely a lot of work still needs to be done on both sides.
04:14 Paul, thank you very much for your time.
04:15 Paul Smith speaking to us from Nottingham.
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