Macron doesn't want the left to govern

Macron doesn’t want the left to govern

There is no way around it: France will not have a new government until at least mid-August. President Emmanuel Macron was categorical, confirming that the outgoing executive will take charge of managing the Paris Olympics, which are scheduled to begin on July 26. The announcement by the head of state, who effectively kicks the ball into the stands, has provoked harsh reactions from the left, which had struggled to propose a unified prime ministerial candidate after weeks of internal conflict.

Business as usual

Anyone who thought that the political chaos that has arisen across the Alps from the early legislative elections could be quickly resolved will have to think again. In yet another forceful intervention in national politics, the occupant of the Elysée declared yesterday to France 2 who will not accept the candidacy of Lucie Castets, proposed by the progressive front to lead the new executive. In his first televised speech after the vote, Macron said that Gabriel Attal’s resigning cabinet will continue to conduct current affairs until at least the middle of next month. This therefore includes the management of the Olympic Games in Paris, which begin the day after tomorrow and will end on August 11.

Left? No, thanks

The varied coalition of the left, united under the banner of New popular front (Nfp) who emerged victorious from the polls by taking home 188 deputies out of 577 in theNational Assemblyseemed on the verge of collapse due to programmatic disagreements and crossed vetoes on the profiles to propose for the role of prime minister. Until, surprisingly, the NFP parties managed to agree on the name of Castets, a 37-year-old economist who has worked for years in the capital as an economic consultant for the public administration and who considers the pension reform wanted by the president as smoke in the eyes (like all the French political forces except the Macronian center).

But their proposal, which came just minutes before Macron went on air, was rejected outright by the president himself, who is given the power by the Constitution to appoint the head of government. “It is false to say that the New Popular Front would have a majority, whatever it is,” said the first incumbent of the Republicquestioning the support that the left front can find in the hemicycle. “The question is not the name,” he added, but rather “what majority can emerge in the Assembly so that a government can pass the reforms, approve the budget and restart France.”

The NFP rises up

Predictably, Macron’s clear closure triggered immediate reactions on the left. Castets spoke of a “denial of democracy” and said she was ready to take office, reminding the president of his responsibilities towards the country: “I am ready, we are ready,” she declared to France Interadding that “a coalition with the presidential camp is impossible due to our deep differences.”

Emmanuel Bompard, coordinator of France unsubduedthe radical left party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon which is the majority shareholder within the NFP, speaking on RTL compared the President of the Republic to a “madman entrenched in the Elysée” who “clings to power and refuses to accept that the French have said that his policies are over”. Comments from other NFP leaders were of the same tenor. For the socialist Olivier Faure, the president’s was a “criminal diversion”, while for the environmentalist Marine Tondelier, the occupant of the Elysée is “totally disconnected from reality”.

The government’s puzzle

This is the second low blow inflicted on the progressive front in the space of a few days. Last July 19, Mr. President had managed to have the outgoing president of the Chamber, Yaël Braun-Pivet, re-elected. The MP, who comes from Macron’s party, Renaissancewas re-elected in the third round with only 13 votes behind the left and thanks to the decisive support of the center-right. In a highly balkanized Assembly, where none of the three main political blocs has the numbers to govern alone, votes are counted on a razor’s edge.

What remains of the Republicansthe party that once belonged to Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy and which imploded after the headlong rush of Éric Ciotti (guilty of having attempted to form an electoral cartel with the RN), has played along with the centrist formations that support the president to re-elect Braun-Pivet, but has not said it is willing to form a government majority with them. The puzzle that will reveal the next tenant of the Matignon building, the seat of the French executive, has not yet been solved. We will see. One thing is certain: politics across the Alps will continue to remain in the spotlight for a while yet.