After Laurence Tubiana’s withdrawal for Matignon, negotiations are still tense on the left

The New Popular Front has still not managed to agree on a candidate for prime minister. Behind the scenes, the left-wing alliance is at an impasse over finding a name.

Time passes and still nothing. The New Popular Front is still thinking hard to try to agree on a name to impose on Emmanuel Macron for Matignon, to the point of accumulating two job abandonments in just over a week. The rebellious Huguette Bello, president of the regional council of La Réunion, then the economist Laurence Tubiana have both thrown in the towel, due to lack of consensus. On the left, everyone is at their wit’s end, as franceinfo was able to see behind the scenes of the negotiations.

“I have no more words”confides a socialist after the abandonment of Laurence Tubiana. The economist, pushed by the Socialist Party, is rejected by the Insoumis because considered too “Macron compatible”. And even if the four parties continue to discuss in order to come up with a consensual name, impatience overwhelms certain figures of the New Popular Front. They even hesitate to return to the negotiating table.

“We turn arround”, a communist gets annoyed. An environmentalist doesn’t even see the point anymore: “There is no question of going there for nothing, we are not going to spend the summer looking for a Prime Minister”It has been almost two weeks since the left-wing alliance promised to provide a name for Matignon, in vain. “We can’t unblock the situation”confides a participant in the negotiations.

“We can have a common program, but not everything is settled. These are questions of strategies and balance within the left.”

A participant in the negotiations

to franceinfo

At the heart of the tensions: the internal standoff within the New Popular Front between La France Insoumise and the Socialists. A PS executive speaks of“a war of position”while the socialists are regaining ground on the left after doubling their number of seats in the National Assembly. But the Insoumis continue to remind us of their weight, with in particular the score of 22% achieved by Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round of the last presidential election.They refuse to consider that they no longer have the upper handsqueaks a leading socialist. The time for La France insoumise 2022 has passed.”

The two left-wing forces are at each other’s throats. And when the Socialist Party sets an ultimatum to try to reach an agreement, pillars of La France Insoumise believe they have time and even postpone this choice until the start of the school year. “LFI and the PS want to achieve something, but on their terms”says a leading environmentalist.

But these tensions, and the general bogging down of the New Popular Front in the negotiations, tarnish the credibility of the entire left. “We have to decide, we’re becoming ridiculous”laments a leading socialist. “If there is no name, the NFP is dead. We must take back control, so that before the Olympic Games we have our name.” The challenge is to prove that the alliance can be agreed urgently, in anticipation of the 2027 presidential election.

“Believing that we can win in 2027 by screwing up 2024 is nonsense.”

A heavyweight environmentalist

to franceinfo

But at present, after the withdrawals of Huguette Bello and Laurence Tubiana due to lack of consensus, three names remain in the balance. Two more political profiles, Cécile Duflot and Benoît Hamon, are expected. Both personalities have moved to the side of civil society, at the head of the NGOs Oxfam and Singa respectively. A third hypothesis is beginning to gain ground: that of André Chassaigne, the leader of the communists in the Assembly.

“He has legitimacy”asks a participant in the negotiations. “No one can suspect him of wanting to run for president, his sense of compromise is recognized and no one can accuse him of not being a statesman.” Especially since some members of the left alliance are demanding a vote to appoint their candidate to Matignon, and André Chassaigne obtained all the votes of the New Popular Front for the election to the seat of the Assembly.

“At the moment, the names on the table are not being discussed”clarifies a participant in the negotiations. But the names are circulating, a way of showing that the NFP machine is still turning and of maintaining an ounce of hope among left-wing voters.