Is the left shooting itself in the foot?

PS deputies decided on Monday to vote in favour of examining in committee the LFI proposal to dismiss Emmanuel Macron, but will then vote against its adoption in the National Assembly. The Socialist Party is taking the risk of moving further away from its former culture of government.

The Assembly’s bureau will decide on the admissibility of Emmanuel Macron’s impeachment motion on Tuesday, September 17 in the morning. The procedure will be initiated since the entire left, which is in the majority in the Assembly’s bureau, will vote in favor. Once again, the socialists did not want to upset Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Their three deputies, whose votes are decisive, will therefore approve the admissibility of the motion tabled by the rebels, while hoping for… its failure! Or when the splits turn into cynicism.

The socialists repeat in a press release that they are “all resolutely opposed to this procedure.” So they will oppose it “unanimously” they say, but only during its examination in the Law Commission, then in public session. Unless of course a new outburst from Jean-Luc Mélenchon makes them give in between now and then. In any case, the failure of this motion is inevitable, because the Senate would first have to take up the same motion, and ultimately, it would have to be approved in each of the two chambers by a three-fifths majority.

The left wants to maintain pressure on Emmanuel Macron. It is a question of maintaining the controversy. In this, France Insoumise is faithful to its strategy, that of wanting “conflict everything”as Jean-Luc Mélenchon repeats, in the Assembly as in the street where LFI calls for demonstrations. On the other hand, by letting itself be carried away by this protest strategy, the PS, which has already ruined Bernard Cazeneuve’s chances for Matignon, is taking the risk of moving further away from its former culture of government.

The course of this procedure could weaken Emmanuel Macron or, on the contrary, strengthen him. If the left lets itself be carried away by the verbal excesses of the rebels, it could appear as the camp of disorder, the one that wants to stir up political chaos, and strengthen Emmanuel Macron as a pole of stability. A procedure doomed to failure hardly threatens the President of the Republic. In fact, the left is using the wrong tool.

The New Popular Front advocates for a more parliamentary Sixth Republic. It should know that the legitimacy of the Barnier government will be at stake in the Assembly. It is if the deputies bring down one or more successive governments that Emmanuel Macron could quickly find himself cornered, or even forced to resign. The impeachment procedure victimizes the President of the Republic, transformed into a target; the censure of the government would conversely make him responsible for the blockage.