Behind the scenes of the New Popular Front negotiations to find a candidate for Matignon

After five days of negotiations, the New Popular Front still cannot agree on the name of a Prime Minister. Behind the scenes, the battle rages.

What’s happening on the left? The forces of the New Popular Front (NFP) were to announce this week the name of a Prime Minister to force Emmanuel Macron to cohabit. But after five days of negotiations, the Socialists and the Insoumis continue to fight. The names of Olivier Faure, the First Secretary of the PS, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the Insoumis leader, were the subject of fierce discussions. A third name entered the race on Friday, July 12, to break the deadlock: that of Huguette Bello, president of the regional council of La Réunion and close to both the Insoumis and the Communists. Franceinfo takes stock of the discussions within the NFP.

The standoff between the Insoumis and the socialists

Although the NFP came out on top in terms of seats, the left-wing forces have been locked behind closed doors for five days, conducting negotiations that have lasted for hours, from evening to early morning. As the talks drag on, a communist on Friday suggested a delay until next week. “It’s going to take longer than expected”he confides. Because behind the scenes, the standoff is intensifying between the socialists and the Insoumis, especially since the PS’s small show of strength at the beginning of the week, which presented its leader Olivier Faure as a possible prime minister. Since then, the Insoumis have been blocking. “The more credibility Olivier Faure’s candidacy gains, the more they are getting tougher about preserving Mélenchon for 2027”judges one of the socialist negotiators.

The name of the leader of the Insoumis is also coming up in the discussions, whereas it was out of the question until now. “LFI blocks everything, they are irresponsible and do not live up to expectations. They bring out Mélenchon, it’s unbearable”a socialist gets annoyed. A close friend of the rebellious leader tempers : “We presented four names. We even said when presenting them that we were giving them in alphabetical order and not otherwise. The rest is misinformation.”.

In addition to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Manuel Bompard, Clémence Guetté and Mathilde Panot have also been put forward by LFI for Matignon. This leadership war is taking place after the PS’s recent good scores in the European and legislative elections, which rebalance the balance of power with LFI. But which risk causing the negotiations to fail.

The 2027 presidential election in the background

Participants in the negotiations are also annoyed that “Environmentalists do not take sides”. “The Greens will have to abandon their colonial animation language and take a stand”said one of the negotiators bluntly.

The socialists, for their part, believe that the prospect of the 2027 presidential election is a factor in these negotiations. “LFI doesn’t care what’s happening this week”believes a close friend of Olivier Faure. According to him, the Insoumis are trying to push the PS and the ecologists to go, without them, into the arms of the Macronists. A strategy that will allow them to label them as traitors and to present themselves as the only true left in view of the presidential election. “It will be them or us”insists Jean-Luc Mélenchon: either the extreme right or LFI. One of his close friends admits this to franceinfo: “The dissolution only postponed the final confrontation”.

Huguette Bello, a “hyphen” that does not create consensus

Faced with this deadlock, the Secretary General of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, proposed the name of Huguette Bello on Friday. The President of the Regional Council of La Réunion, little known to the general public, is close to both the Insoumis and the Communists. This loyal supporter of Jean-Luc Mélenchon was in fact a Communist MP and candidate on Manon Aubry’s Insoumise list in the European elections, in an ineligible position. “It’s a good link”defend the communists, who hope to get out of the impasse. Her candidacy also interests the environmentalists: according to information from franceinfo, Marine Tondelier, the leader of the Greens, contacted her this week. Fabien Roussel defends a woman “who knows Parliament, who has the capacity to build a majority” and who is used to exchanging with Emmanuel Macron.

But this proposal does not suit the Socialist Party at all at the moment, which refuses to reject Olivier Faure’s candidacy. “This is the Medrano circus. [Huguette Bello] is a communist, she is LFI… I have trouble with people who don’t have a backbonetackles a weighty parliamentarian to franceinfo. She is a good regional president but she does not have the skills for Matignon.” Others even see it as a secret agreement, with the communists whispering his name to save their group in the Assembly with the registration of overseas deputies, particularly from Reunion.

Voices are also raised to recall that she had not voted for the law on marriage for all at the time. Another repulsive argument for the left-wing electorate: the condemnation of the regional council of La Réunion by the administrative court in March 2024. The community, chaired by Huguette Bello, was ordered to compensate 18 agents “whose fixed-term contract had not been renewed” to hire people close to the majority in their place, according to an article in World.