The Monocle Minute

After a marathon nomination process and unprecedented horse-trading over cabinet positions, French prime minister Michel Barnier has named France’s most conservative government in 15 years. Only one left-wing politician, justice minister Didier Migaud, was given a post in the cabinet. France’s leftist parties are calling it a “stolen election”, denouncing the new government as “a hold-up by an organised gang”. But these parties bear much of the responsibility for their exclusion.

The leftist alliance, Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP), came first in July’s legislative elections, beating president Emmanuel Macron’s centrist allies and Marine le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National. Ironically, the alliance also trounced new prime minister Barnier’s conservative Les Républicains party. While the left’s result put it in a position of strength, it came well short of winning enough seats to govern without paying heed to its rivals.

In a divided Assemblée Nationale, the NFP’s all-or-nothing approach was a non-starter. Instead of seizing the opportunity to steer France leftward through compromise, it stuck to its rigid way of doing things, even as negotiations to form a new government reached their final stages. When Macron ruled out the NFP’s choice for prime minister, its leaders played the victim and stoked the flames of division for maximum political advantage in future elections.

Macron, with his gambit of calling early elections, shares responsibility for creating this political instability. But the NFP had a chance to govern, which it squandered in the name of political gamesmanship. NFP leaders now complain that Barnier and his cabinet are at the mercy of the far right but they could have held sway and placed their people in key ministries. Instead, the left’s absolutism has stripped it of influence. Its electorate deserved better.

Simon Bouvier is Monocle’s Paris bureau chief. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Como might be famous for its sparkling lake but what about the arts? The Lake Como Design Festival, whose sixth edition wrapped up Sunday, is looking to make people appreciate the area for more diverse reasons. Since 2018, Wonderlake, the association that runs the festival, opened up 12 buildings to the public and showcased the work of some 400 designers, architects and artists. The event also allows visitors access to a normally restricted side to the lake. This year’s iteration included a contemporary-design selection set among the grounds of Villa del Grumello and an exhibition of 28 seats at Palazzo del Broletto.

It’s also a different experience for designers, who talked about a collaborative, almost residence-like feeling. “In Como it’s very clear to me that there is space and time for designers who are independent,” curator Giovanna Massoni told The Monocle Minute. And while the hope is that commercial relationships will come from the festival, it’s not everything. The festival is also a reminder to get out of our urban bubbles: Como is near Milan and yet the water, mountains and light make it seem as though it’s a different world.

Joe Biden is welcoming UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed al-Nahyan to the White House for a historic visit, more than two years after their first meeting in Jeddah. Much has changed since that encounter – the Middle East is in unprecedented chaos and a humanitarian crisis beckons in Sudan. It’s hardly the ideal backdrop for talks on renewed economic ties and a hopeful new chapter for US-Middle East relations.

“It’s almost as if there are two Middle Easts going on at the same time,” UAE-based journalist Mustafa Alrawi told Monocle Radio’s The Briefing. Strengthened ties between the US and UAE bode well for investments in artificial intelligence, space and even the climate but the two nations must also divert their attention to the humanitarian emergencies unfolding in Gaza, Lebanon and Sudan. This first visit to Washington by a UAE president might not be as optimistic as originally planned. It’s now more vital than ever for both countries to play a positive role in the Middle East.

Anura Kumara Dissanayake, leader of Sri Lanka’s left-wing National People’s Power (NPP) coalition, won the country’s presidential election on Sunday. We spoke to him in Colombo for the September issue of Monocle magazine, which is on newsstands now.

What does the NPP offer Sri Lanka?
Both the main opposition and the ruling party follow the same neoliberal economic model. Today, sadly, we are a bankrupt nation. We have an external debt of €34bn, poverty has increased and the price of essential goods has skyrocketed. Our priority is to save the country from this economic crisis.

What about foreign policy?
There are many power camps within a multipolar system. We won’t be a competitor in that geopolitical fight, nor will we be aligned to any party. We don’t want to be sandwiched, especially between China and India. Both countries are valued friends and, under an NPP government, we expect them to become close partners. We also want to maintain relations with the EU, the Middle East and Africa.

You won only 3.16 per cent of the vote in 2019. What changed?
In the past, people wanted us to be the opposition. Now they want us to run the country. They have realised that the two main parties rule together. Their economic policies and governance structures are the same.

We discuss two new films in this week’s episode. The Goldman Case dramatises the 1976 trial of revolutionary left-wing intellectual Pierre Goldman and is a thrilling retelling of a momentous event in French legal history. Plus: we speak to the directors behind the new documentary Sugarcane, which follows an investigation into the Canadian Indian residential school system.