French President Emmanuel Macron has ruled out selecting a member of the far-left New Popular Front as his next prime minister, despite having partnered with the leftist bloc in the recent elections.
After meetings with the heads of the varying factions within the National Assembly, President Macron categorically ruled out forming a new government with the leftist New Popular Front (NFP), despite having partnered with the far-left coalition during last month’s snap legislative elections to block the populist National Rally of Marine Le Pen taking power.
On Monday, Macron met with Le Pen and her deputy, Jordan Bardella, at the presidential Elysee Palace. Following the meeting, Le Pen vowed that her party would put forward a motion of no confidence in any government formed with the NFP.
The leftist New Popular Front had attempted to force Macron into selecting Lucie Castets, a socialist economist and former deep state bureaucrat, who has never been elected to any post, as the country’s next prime minister. Former presidential candidate and leader of the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party — a member of the NFP — Jean-Luc Mélenchon had threatened to impeach Macron if he refused to instal Castets or another socialist.
However, with the New Popular Front only holding 180 seats out of the 577 seat parliament, any government based around the party would inherently be unstable, particularly with the threat from Le Pen and other parties to wage no confidence votes against any NFP prime minister.
Noting this reality, a press release from Macron’s office said on Monday evening: “At the end of the consultations, the President of the Republic noted that a government based only on the program and only on the parties proposed by the alliance bringing together the most deputies, the New Popular Front, would be immediately censored by all of the parties. other groups represented in the National Assembly.
“Such a government would therefore immediately have a majority of more than 350 deputies against it, effectively preventing it from acting. Taking into account the expression of the political leaders consulted, the institutional stability of our country therefore requires us not to choose this option.”
While Mr Macron urged for “all political leaders to rise to the occasion by demonstrating a spirit of responsibility,” the political stalemate he finds himself in is largely a creation of his own actions.
After suffering a humiliating defeat in the European Parliament elections in June to Le Pen’s National Rally, Macron called for snap legislative elections to be held in June. During the first round of voting, Le Pen’s party once again came out on top and was poised for a historic victory and potential governing majority in the National Assembly.
To prevent this outcome, Macron made a last-minute deal with the far-left New Popular Front to engage in strategic voting, with NFP or Macronists standing down in races depending on which candidate had the best chance to beat the Le Pen candidate. Although the populist National Rally won the most votes of any party, the political gamesmanship from Macron prevailed, not only preventing the Le Pen party from a majority but relegating it to the third most seats in the Assembly.
However, the move also left the country without a clear victor in the elections. This has meant that France, which is facing many pressing problems, including a looming debt crisis, has effectively not had a government for over a month, with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal merely staying on in a caretaker role with no power to pass new legislation.
Mr Macron said that he will continue with negotiations on Tuesday, however, Le Monde reports that La France Insoumise, Le Pen’s National Rally and centre-right leader Eric Ciotti will not be invited back for the second round of consultations.
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