Two days after the motion of censure topple the conservative French government Michel Barnierthe president, Emmanuel Macronintensified this Friday the political contacts to find a successoropening the door to the socialists but with the priority still in the center right.
The great news of the day was that for the Elysium a delegation paraded at the highest level of the Socialist Party (PS)headed by its leader, Olivier Faurefor a meeting unauthorized by Rebellious France (LFI) of Jean-Luc Melenchonwhich 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 Mélenchon’s maximalism, opposed to any pact and insistent on calling for Macron’s resignationto unblock a jammed legislature.
The 60 socialist deputies constitute for them an opportunity to remove Marine Le Pen’s far-right from the equationwho has rebelled like a unreliable allyas 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 from left and that the president also has 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 Vallaudand the Senate, Patrick Kenner.
The socialists also demand “a change of course” in politics and “end macronism”demands based on the results of the legislative elections of last July 7, in which the left snatched the majority from the presidential blocwhich was also advanced in votes by the extreme right.
The idea of the PS is to find a pact of circumstances between the parties most in the center of the parliamentary arc, to carry out a provisional Government, until next summer legislative elections can be convened againand based on a lowest common denominator.
Faure, who denied betraying the leftist alliance, assured that the president received them “without preconditions,” but came out with a single commitment, that of talk to your other leftist partnerssomething the president will do, including LFI.
Look to the right
The Elysée does not seem to find in socialist support the numbers needed to unclog the legislature, especially because his presence in the Executive would cause the escape of others.
Starting with the moderate right of The Republicans (LR), who should be the next to pass through Macron’s office, but according to the BFMTV channel They are not willing to accept a left-wing prime minister.
The acting Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleauchampion of the most conservative current of LR, very close to the extreme right on issues of immigration and securitymade it clear in a message on social networks: “We cannot accept those who refuse to denounce the crazy ‘Melenchonista’ drifts and voted for an irresponsible motion of censure”.
With the PS but without LR the accounts do not work out either and if Le Pen does not endorse on the right, Mélenchon does not endorse on the left either, which fills this initiative with questions.
Without official communication from the Elysée, observers analyze the few gestures that overcome the palace barriers and that They seem to indicate that Macron is not betting on a left-wing prime minister.
The name that sounds the loudest is that of the centrist François Bayrouan early ally of Macron, with whom he aspires to break some of the blockages that the conservative Barnier carried without losing the political line of Macronism.
Three times candidate for the Elysée, minister of conservative governments of Jacques Chiracthe current mayor of Pau, 73 years old (the same age as Barnier), has the advantage that is not conservative and, furthermore, it has the approval of Le Pen, with whom shares the defense of a more proportional electoral system.
But there is nothing to indicate that he will not end up, like the former Brexit negotiator, in the clutches of the extreme right, with the results that are already known.
In the midst of these combinations, time is ticking for the president, who promised to have a new head of government “in a few days,” but who sees how the calendar is on top of him.
France, which leads Europe in opposition to the agreement with Mercosurattended this Friday without a solid Government the progress of that alliance praised in Montevideo by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
This urgency is added to those imposed by a national economy in critical situationwhich must be faced without updated budgets increasing tension in international markets which place the French risk premium at levels equivalent to those of Greece.
