(Paris) Unable to agree on a candidate for Matignon, the left struggled on Monday to overcome its differences: the Insoumis castigated the “systematic opposition” of the socialists, who are now considering turning to civil society, while Gabriel Attal and Emmanuel Macron gathered their troops to refine their strategy.
While waiting for the new legislature to be set up and the highly anticipated election of the next president of the National Assembly on Thursday, the President of the Republic received the party leaders of the presidential camp at midday at the Élysée Palace, including Stéphane Séjourné (Renaissance) and Marc Fesneau, representative of MoDem president François Bayrou.
Just before, it was Gabriel Attal, newly elected leader of the Macronist deputies, who brought together by videoconference the Renaissance group, soon to be renamed “Together for the Republic”.
PHOTO LUDOVIC MARIN, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Gabriel Attal remains Prime Minister until Emmanuel Macron accepts his resignation.
Having come out on top in the legislative elections, the New Popular Front has, for its part, still not reached an agreement on a government team.
The name of Huguette Bello, president of La Réunion close to La France insoumise (LFI), did not convince the Socialist Party (PS) and the lead was abandoned over the weekend… And this is starting to get annoying, after eight days of fruitless negotiations.
“I am so angry about the face we are showing,” environmentalist Sandrine Rousseau despaired on X on Monday.
The strongest tensions are between the Insoumis and the Socialists, the two main groups of the New Popular Front (NFP) fighting for leadership on the left of the new hemicycle.
“If things are blocked today, it is clearly the fault of the Socialist Party,” declared LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard, denouncing on RMC and BFMTV “the systematic opposition, the blockages, the vetoes” emanating according to him from the PS “on all the candidacies.”
“Nothing has been blocked,” replied the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure, official candidate of the socialists for Matignon.
Heading for the perch
To get out of the rut, the Seine-et-Marne MP suggested on France 2 to “widen” the prism to “someone from outside”. “We must try to find the personality, perhaps from civil society, who will allow us to move forward together”, he explained, without however naming any names. This “could be a solution”, added the Green senator Mélanie Vogel on BFM.
The Insoumis, for their part, have set another priority for the NFP: agreeing on a joint candidacy for the post of President of the Assembly.
“The rest will depend on this election to the National Assembly,” insisted the rebellious deputy of Val-de-Marne, Clémence Guetté, on TF1.
The left is playing big in this election to the perch: part of the Macronist camp has been trying for several days to build an alternative majority to the NFP for this key position, which Yaël Braun-Pivet intends to keep.
An agreement with the right, for example, could allow the presidential bloc to overtake the left in number of votes.
But another candidacy could bring together a large number of people: that of the centrist Charles de Courson. This former representative of the independent Liot group, who fought against the pension reform, promised, if he had the post, to be the “guarantor [du] proper functioning” of the Assembly in an “unprecedented and chaotic period”.
Attal soon to resign
The question of the Republican front against the National Rally, which the left would like to pursue in the National Assembly by depriving the RN of any position of responsibility, is also one of the topics of the week.
But several Macronist executives, including Mme Braun-Pivet, are opposed to it, in the wake of the 2022 legislative elections, after which the RN obtained two vice-presidencies of the Assembly, in particular.
This issue of the Republican Front was on the agenda of the morning meeting of the Renaissance group around Gabriel Attal, the conclusions of which have not been leaked.
In the meantime, Mr. Attal remains Prime Minister, as long as Emmanuel Macron does not accept his resignation.
PHOTO LUDOVIC MARIN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Emmanuel Macron (right) shakes hands with Prime Minister Gabriel Attal during the Bastille Day parade.
This should be the case “Tuesday or Wednesday,” Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Monday. The current team would, however, remain in place for a certain time, particularly during the very sensitive period of the Olympic Games, to manage “current affairs.” A council of ministers, scheduled for Tuesday at 11:30 a.m., could pave the way for this new configuration.
In the midst of the political uncertainty, one thing is certain for the future government team: it will recover public finances in the red. In a thick report presented on Monday morning, the Court of Auditors draws up a worrying assessment.
The need to reduce debt is an “imperative” which “must be shared” by all political forces, warned its first president Pierre Moscovici.