French leftists agree on prime ministerial candidate three days before Games

Two weeks after legislative elections in France that left parliament split into three sections and no one with a majority to govern, the left, which went into the election united, managed to prevail over the center-right. Emmanuel Macron and on the extreme right Marine Le PenThey have managed to build a consensus on their candidate for potential Prime Minister. They will present it to Macron but the final decision will rest with the President.

The left claims its victory but they held futile discussions for two weeks. Finally, they have agreed and the candidate will be Lucie CastetsAn economist and who is not linked to any of the parties that make up the block (baptized as New Popular Front): socialists, environmentalists, communists and La Francia Insumisa, a formation with a controversial leadership Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Differences within the bloc, especially with this last party, which is considered extreme right-wing, have complicated negotiations to find a consensus candidate. Since the left was ahead in the election and has more seats than the rest of the parties, the logic would be that Emmanuel Macron called for a political truce during the Paris Olympic Games, which begin this Friday. The government resigned and is in office in order to be able to guarantee the proper development of sports.

Castets, 37, is “committed to the collaborative struggle to defend and promote public services, as well as to the battle of ideas,” Nuevo Frente Popular said in a joint statement.

Castets was the finance director in the Paris mayor’s office, which is run by the Socialist Anne Hidalgoand for example, in favor of asking for Repeal of pension reformWhich is the main reform of this second term of Emmanuel Macron. It delayed the retirement age to 64 years and was very controversial and there were protests in the streets. It was approved after months of violent street protests, so it is unlikely that Macron will accept this profile to nominate him prime minister.

In an interview on France 2 television, his first since the legislative elections, Macron said that “it’s not about choosing a name, but about managing to build a consensus in the assembly.”

The Macronist camp scored its first victory last week when it managed to secure its candidate for president of the French Assembly. Yale Braun-PivetWinning the vote in Parliament, it renewed its mandate.