Philippe Wojazer / EPA
President of France tries to reach a pact between moderates before appointing a new prime minister. It’s going to be complicated.
The French President, Emmanuel Macron, continued this Monday contacts to appoint a Governmentlooking for a pact between moderates before appointing a new prime minister, successor to the far-right and left-wing conservative Michel Barnier.
After a weekend of political ‘truce’, due to the reopening of the cathedral, Macron met with the small group of regionalists and communists (and left-wing coalition New Popular Fronttogether with socialists, environmentalists and the radical left Insubordinate France).
On the social network X, the national secretary of the communists, Fabien Roussel, confirmed the holding of a new meeting on Tuesday “with the President and political forces”, without specifying the time.
The leader of the Ecologists, , said that she had been contacted to schedule a meeting, and that the time was yet to be determined depending on “each person’s schedule”, but that it would probably be on Tuesday afternoon.
Before the Elisha’s silencethe leader of the Ecologists was satisfied with her meeting with Macron and assured that the President will open a dialogue table for all leaders, except Marine Le Pen, leader of the National Union (RN).
“I notice that Emmanuel Macron is willing to discuss” and “break the impasse”said Marie Tondelier.
Extremes out and Sarkozy
This work by the French President involves fragment the left alliance New Popular Front (NFP), with calls for responsibility, to leave out its most intransigent component, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Insubmissive France (LFI), which refuses to dialogue with the Élysée and insists that the only way out is resignation by Macron.
Furthermore, the French head of state intends dispense with the support of the far right of Marine Le Pen, who had committed to Barnier, but ended up joining the left to vote in favor of the motion of censure that brought down the government last Wednesday.
Free from both political extremesMacron hopes bring together the different moderate parties into a lowest common denominatorwho on paper have irreconcilable positions, but who say they are willing to make sacrifices to get out of the political impasse that the country is going through, as is the case of the socialists, with whom he met on Friday.
But the French press doubt of the effectiveness of this direction taken by the president. The cover of the newspaper Le Figaro also warns that Macron is looking for an “undetectable” coalitionwhen trying to bring together movements that are capable of integrating a “government of general interest”.
The conditions for an agreement are “far” from being guaranteed between the parties called. To the disagreements are diverse, especially in terms of economic, on pensions e immigration.
The same newspaper that Emmanuel Macron had a secret meeting with Nicolas Sarkozyformer president of France. The meeting took place last Sunday.
The first consequence of Macron’s new strategy is the renunciation of a rapid change in the leadership of the Government, as the President had announced, to face the country’s difficult challenges.
To the left, there is a rupture on the common front of the parliamentary alliance, as socialists, communists and ecologists are open to dialogue, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the LFI continue with the strategy of frontal opposition to Macron.
Both socialist leaders and Marie Tondelier considered the participation of the LFI, which is the majority component of the alliance, important, although its 70 deputies are not essential if the rest of the moderate parties reach an agreement.
The communist leader considered a left-wing prime minister “preferable”, but not essentialhighlighting that the important thing is that policy changes direction.
Socialists and ecologists demanded that the new prime minister be from left, winner of the July legislative elections, but the conditions may not be accepted by the right and center-right.
Os conservatives, led by the interim Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, ensure that would not accept a left-wing prime ministerwhile Macronists, led by former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, exclude the possibility of reversing recent reforms such as increasing the minimum retirement age.
On Thursday, the French President announced that he will appoint “in the next few days” a prime minister who will lead a “government of national unity” and reiterated that he will fulfill his mandate in full, defending “a clear path” for the next 30 months.
