Two days after the motion of censure overthrew the French Government of conservative Michel Barnier, the president, Emmanuel Macron, intensified political contacts this Friday to find a successor, opening the door to the socialists but with the priority still on the center right . The great novelty of the day was that a delegation at the highest level of the Socialist Party (PS), headed by its leader, Olivier Faure, paraded through the Elysée for a meeting unauthorized by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La Francia Insumisa (LFI). which is the hegemonic formation of the majority left alliance in the National Assembly, called the New Popular Front (NFP). The meeting was welcomed with enthusiasm by those who aspire for the PS to abandon the maximalism of Mélenchon, opposed to any pact and insisting on calling for Macron’s resignation, to unblock a jammed legislature. The 60 socialist deputies constitute an opportunity for them to remove Marine Le Pen’s extreme right from the equation, which has rebelled as an unreliable ally, as was demonstrated in the motion of censure against Barnier. But Faure went to the Elysée with his own demands: that the next prime minister be left-wing and that the president also count on the other components of his electoral coalition, that is, LFI, communists and environmentalists. “We will not participate in any government led by a right-wing prime minister,” assured the socialist leader at the end of the meeting with Macron, flanked by his spokespersons in the National Assembly, Boris Vallaud, and the Senate, Patrick Kenner.
