“It is not up to Emmanuel Macron to find a coalition in the National Assembly,” maintains the PCF spokesperson

While the appointment of the new Prime Minister and his future government is awaited, “it is not up to [Emmanuel Macron] to find a coalition in the National Assembly,” said Léon Deffontaines, spokesperson for the PCF, on franceinfo on Thursday, August 22. The head of state has not yet appointed a Prime Minister a month and a half after the second round of early legislative elections. Léon Deffontaines considers that “If the President of the Republic refuses to appoint Lucie Castets to Matignon, then it will probably be one of the biggest democratic frauds of the Fifth Republic.”

Emmanuel Macron is to receive the leaders of the parties and parliamentary groups from Friday, with the New Popular Front starting in the morning. The leaders of the parties and parliamentary groups that form the NFP will arrive “together” with Lucie Castets, proposed for Matignon by the left. Léon Deffontaines specifies that the alliance of the left will benefit from this “meeting at the Élysée so that finally the President of the Republic deigns to take an interest in Lucie Castets and can discuss” with her.

Former head of the communist list for the European elections, Léon Deffontaines recalls that the “President of the Republic must call [à Matignon] the political force that came out on top in the elections” in order to appoint a new head of government. He explains that it is up to this political party, even though it has a “relative majority” to the National Assembly, “finding compromises” in the hemicycle. “These are the customs of the Fifth Republic,” insists the PCF spokesperson. He also believes that “if another Prime Minister” that Lucie Castets “is appointed, then in fact the President of the Republic will not have respected the customs of the Fifth Republic, will not be the guarantor of the institutions […] and a motion of censure will have to be tabled”.