(Paris) New renunciation on the left for Matignon: after the Reunion Islander Huguette Bello, Laurence Tubiana threw in the towel on Monday in the face of internal disagreements in the New Popular Front, while the right is going to present its “legislative pact” and the presidential camp is working on a broad coalition.
More than two weeks after coming out on top in the early legislative elections, but far from an absolute majority in the Assembly, the left is still claiming the post of Prime Minister, but continues to be divided over the name of its candidate.
Emmanuel Macron has not, at this stage, asked the New Popular Front to propose a name, but has tasked the government of Gabriel Attal, who resigned last Tuesday, with managing current affairs.
France is entering the period of the Olympic Games which will open on Friday, the occasion for a “political truce”, according to Emmanuel Macron.
The last potential candidate for Matignon on the left did not resist the dissensions: “I note that my name has encountered opposition within the NFP”, wrote climate diplomat Laurence Tubiana on X on Monday morning, who takes “note” of this and gives up running for the post.
Her name had been proposed by the Socialist Party, and validated by the environmentalists and the communists, but it was rejected by the Insoumis who found it too “Macron-compatible”.
This is the second candidate considered by the New Popular Front to drop out. Before her, the president of the Réunion region Huguette Bello, whose name had been put forward by the communists and supported by the Insoumis and the ecologists, dropped out after opposition from the PS.
The New Popular Front, built in haste after the surprise dissolution of the Assembly, finds itself at an impasse, to the great despair of left-wing voters and several elected officials, such as MP François Ruffin, who deplored on Sunday the “nullity” of the left-wing alliance.
To get out of this situation, the socialists had demanded on Friday “a solemn vote by the deputies of the four groups” by Tuesday July 23.
But LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard, advocating a decision by “consensus”, reiterated his opposition to such a vote on Monday and stressed that there was no urgency to decide, as long as the President of the Republic did not call on the left-wing parties to form a government.
“The responsibility now lies with the President of the Republic to turn to the New Popular Front,” he said. “If he does so, we will end our discussions and […] we will actually propose a candidate to him or her.”
During a meeting between the NFP partners, other names were put on the table, including those of the general director of Oxfam France and former minister Cécile Duflot, the former presidential candidate Benoît Hamon and the leader of the communist deputies André Chassaigne.
Work and authority
The Insoumis and the Socialists are divided above all on their strategy: Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s movement swears only by “the program, nothing but the program, the whole program” of the NFP. The Socialists, for their part, recognize the need to broaden the project, and question LFI’s desire to govern.
Faced with these divisions, the presidential camp hopes to come out on top.
Gabriel Attal, the resigning prime minister and leader of Macronist deputies, proposed to the latter to “contribute” to a “coalition” pact with “the republican left and/or right”, in a letter sent on Sunday.
PHOTO SARAH MEYSSONNIER, REUTERS ARCHIVES
The resigning Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal
This letter resonates with the “legislative pact” that Laurent Wauquiez, new president of the former LR group in the Assembly, renamed La droite républicaine, is due to detail on Monday afternoon, with the president of the LR in the Senate Bruno Retailleau.
After an alliance in the Assembly at the end of last week between Macron’s party and the right, which allowed both camps to obtain several important positions, this “legislative pact” could serve as the basis for a possible broader agreement. Even if the Republican right assures that it refuses any “government coalition” with the central bloc.
The draft pact, unveiled last week, is based on “around ten texts” deemed to be priorities, around work and authority.