{"id":13100,"date":"2018-08-29T02:27:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-29T02:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13100"},"modified":"2018-08-29T02:27:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T02:27:02","slug":"blow-for-frances-macron-as-star-environment-minister-quits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=13100","title":{"rendered":"Blow for France&#8217;s Macron as star environment minister quits"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"body-170301071804049\" readability=\"99\">\n<p>Emmanuel Macron suffered a major blow to his authority and green credentials on Tuesday as his popular environment minister resigned live on radio &#8211; without informing the French president beforehand.<\/p>\n<p>Nicolas Hulot, a TV celebrity and one of the most respected members of the cabinet among the public, announced the news on France Inter radio, taking both his interviewers and government colleagues by surprise.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I am taking the decision to leave the government,&#8221; Hulot said, explaining he felt &#8220;all alone&#8221; on environmental issues in a government committed to the same economic model &#8220;that is the cause of all the problems&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I hope my departure will trigger deep soul-searching by our society on the realities of our world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A government spokesman ripped into Hulot for not taking &#8220;the most basic of courtesies&#8221; to inform Macron or the prime minister before quitting &#8211; an unprecedented move for a French minister, analysts said.<\/p>\n<p>But Macron responded that Hulot was &#8220;a free man&#8221; and he respected his decision.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I hope I will be able to count on his commitment in another form,&#8221; Macron said on a trip to Copenhagen.<\/p>\n<p>Hulot, 63, was lured into government last year by Macron but has repeatedly clashed with his cabinet colleagues over policy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re taking little steps and France is doing a lot more than other countries, but are little steps enough? The answer is no,&#8221; he added, after months of speculation over his role in government.<\/p>\n<p>Hulot&#8217;s exit also risks undercutting Macron&#8217;s credentials as a leading campaigner internationally against climate change that has seen him adopt the catchphrase &#8220;Make our planet great again&#8221;.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Emmanuel Macron suffered a major blow to his authority and green credentials on Tuesday as his popular environment minister resigned live on radio &#8211; without informing the French president beforehand. Nicolas Hulot, a TV celebrity and one of the most respected members of the cabinet among the public, announced the news on France Inter radio,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":13101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}