New Popular Front fumes as Michel Barnier struggles to form government

Prime Minister Michel Barnier has called together most of the political parties of the centre-right on Thursday.

Will there be a Michel Barnier government this week as planned? Negotiations over the casting are dragging on and on. The Prime Minister is trying to speed things up and has called most of the political parties from the centre and the right to Matignon at 3pm on Thursday 19 September. The New Popular Front is irritated by Michel Barnier’s great difficulty in appointing a government.

The left is furious and accuses Emmanuel Macron of being responsible for the blockage. PS MP Arthur Delaporte: “The President of the Republic has made a fundamental mistake. By appointing Michel Barnier, by putting himself in the hands of the extreme right, he has reduced himself to being a spectator of a disaster that was foretold. In a way, it is the pot calling the kettle black. By appointing a man of the right, he is forced to try to have a right-wing policy that will be closer to that of the National Rally than to his own.”

The head of state is caught in his own trap, believes Bastien Lachaud, LFI deputy: “Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly and denied the popular result that came from it. Emmanuel Macron should have appointed Lucie Castets. He can still do so when Michel Barnier resigns if he fails to form a government.” “For the first time, I wonder if we are really going to have a government.”slips a PCF executive. Same questioning in the PS general staff. “All this seems difficult to solve”analyses a close friend of the socialist leader Olivier Faure.

And if Michel Barnier backs down, the New Popular Front is ready to go for it, promises NFP MP Alexis Corbière: “We have a face, a competent person called Madame Lucie Castets, who could be at Matignon tomorrow. We obviously have political forces that can find a list of very competent people in different ministries, that’s not a problem. We have a program that is known to all French people and which placed us at the head of all political coalitions during the legislative elections.”

The left is trying to appear united, ready to form a government quickly. A way of trying to make people forget that it took weeks of stormy negotiations this summer for the New Popular Front to agree on the name of Lucie Castets.