The New Popular Front is willing to govern as a minority if Macron and his party allow it

This article was originally published in English

The parties that make up the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP), which surprisingly won the second round of France’s early legislative elections on Sunday, They have claimed their right to rule And they promise to stop the extreme right when they return to the National Assembly on Thursday.

“From today we are working. We are working with our allies from the New Popular Front (…) and We keep demanding to rule this country” Mathilde Panot, parliamentary leader of the far-left France Insoumise party (LFI), told the press upon arriving at the National Assembly.

“(French President) Emmanuel Macron must appear for election at the polls“He added.

NFP, which was created 48 hours after Macron announced the dissolution The June 9 Parliament is made up of several left-wing parties, including the LFI and the Communist Party, as well as more moderate forces such as the Socialists and the Greens.

Together against the far right

Together Opinion poll expectations defied And they ruined the far-right National Group’s (RN) attempt to win early elections and claim a share in the next government.

The NFP won 193 seats, ahead of Macron’s centrist Ensemble coalitionwhich surprised by coming second with 164 seats, and the RN and its allies, who secured 143 seats.

However, none of them, obtained the required 289 seats Ensuring an absolute majority and, therefore, the right to govern alone. But the NFP is confident it can do that.

Macron must “respect the choice of the voters”.

“We ask the president of the republic (…)” said Communist leader Fabien Roussel in an interview published Tuesday in the regional newspaper Midi Libre. let us rule“, stating that the parties making up the NFP “are the largest in number willing to sit down and work together to present a programme to the voters.”

this scenario This would imply that “cohabitation” is possible, In which the president comes from a different party than his prime minister and his cabinet. France has already had three such cohabitations, but on all previous occasions they were after legislative elections in which a clear mandate and a single political stream won a substantial majority, which is not the case this time.

NFP can also Try to rule with a relative majorityBut this has its limits, as Macron can attest.

chairman Lost absolute majority two years ago A few weeks after being re-elected to office, only 246 deputies remained.

His demands for compromise between various structures fell flat and his government collapsed He carried out reforms by resorting to the controversial Article 49.3 The Constitution, which allows him to abstain from voting but leaves him open to a censure motion.

He escaped these censure motions because of various opposition parties They could not agree on a joint platform. The margins were also slim. Macron’s coalition fell 43 seats short of an absolute majority, while the NFP is now around 96 seats short.

In his interview, Roussel defended that this could work if the Ensemble delegates “respect the choice of the voters.” “If the Macronist delegates do not vote in favor of the motions of censure, our government will be able to govern“, Said.

The NFP has committed to Repeal of the wealth tax by Macron And a controversial pension reform approved last year raised the retirement age by two years to 64, among other measures.

The only answer is a broad coalition

Clement Beaune, a close aide to Macron lost his seat in the preliminary electionsThe NFP on Tuesday seemed to pour cold water on the situation.

Former Transport Minister confessed on social platform Gave “rights” to NFP. However, he argued that the lack of a majority and the fact that many representatives of the left and centre were elected “not only for their programme”, but as part of a so-called “republican front” to prevent the extreme right from coming to power, did not give carte blanche to the victorious NFP.*

“The only answer is a broad coalition “Party leaders must initiate a dialogue,” he wrote.

Macron and his prime minister, Gabriel Attal, who He submitted his resignation on Monday But those who have been asked to stay on in the interim have indicated a willingness to join a so-called rainbow coalition made up of “moderates.”

This would exclude the LFI, which includes many of Macron’s men. Considered as militant like RNBut it will include 39 dissident deputies of the Right Republican (LR), who rejected a pre-election alliance agreed with the RN by its president, Éric Ciotti.

However, Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional council and a powerful figure in the LR party, declared that He “will not join any coalition or any agreement.” For their part, NFP leaders say they will continue to work together.

but soon Cracks may appear,

NFP leaders have held hours of talks, including over the past two nights, to unite on a number of issues Who would you like to see in the government? And the decision as to who should take on the role of prime minister is, in theory, Macron’s.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the controversial leader of the LFI, has said this would like to take up the positionwhich the other NFP parties do not seem to like. Socialist leader Olivier Faure also told reporters on Tuesday: “I am ready, but (I am) in talks with partners because I believe that nobody can impose anything on anyone.”

Protesters welcomed the Samajwadi group in front of the assembly He condemned the party’s alliance with LFI. They carried banners that read “Anti-Semitism is not a social project” and chanted “Republican Front, don’t compromise. We don’t want anti-Semitism,” in reference to Mélenchon, who was accused of downplaying anti-Semitism.

Leave it to Marine Le Pen

What the different NFP parties seem to be agreeing on at the moment is the need Prevent RNs from assuming management tasks In the National Assembly.

“We are on borrowed time against the extreme right, or we succeed and in that case perhaps we will avert the threat of the extreme right for a long time, or we fail and then we risk seeing them come (to power), unfortunately this time with an absolute majority,” Faure declared.

He Far-right party has largest individual delegation in Parliament (the NFP and Ensemble are a coalition of parties), which has led some to argue that one of their representatives should take the role of Speaker or Speaker of the Assembly.

Panot and Cyrille Chatelain, one of the two co-presidents of the Greens group in the Assembly, He denied it on Tuesday,

It was these voters who “blocked (the RN) in the elections, so that’s it,” Chatelain told reporters as his 33-member group prepared to enter parliament for the first time. It is our responsibility to stop this in the National Assembly,

“The extreme right is not compatible with the Republic, so R.N. should not hold any leadership position That’s the mandate the voters gave us in this Assembly.”