Legislative elections in France | The left arrives in the Assembly and wants to govern

(Paris) Buoyed by their success in the legislative elections, left-wing deputies arrived in force at the National Assembly on Tuesday, with the hope intact of governing alone despite the absence of an absolute majority, a position denounced by the presidential camp which advocates “realism” and a broader coalition.

The head of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure, who arrived in the middle of the afternoon at the Palais Bourbon with the socialist elected representatives, said he was “ready to assume” the role of prime minister “in dialogue with [ses] partners” of the New Popular Front, a warning against Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s desire to send an Insoumis to Matignon.

Much in demand, the former head of state François Hollande, elected in Corrèze, made a remarkable return, joking, he who often attracted the wrath of the weather when he was at the Élysée, about the imminent storm.

Environmentalists and rebels arrived by the dozens in the morning, invigorated by the score of the New Popular Front (NFP), which will have more than 190 seats in the future legislature.

Even though they are far from an absolute majority (289), the components of the left continue to advocate for a government from the NFP, promising to propose a name for a prime minister and a team by “the end of the week”, according to several leaders.

The meetings are therefore multiplying and a strategy seems to be emerging in their ranks: an executive restricted to the left, but “a broader base in the Assembly”, explained the former president of the socialist deputies Boris Vallaud on France Inter.

“I don’t want to work in a government where there are Macronists,” continued environmentalist Sandrine Rousseau upon her arrival at the Palais Bourbon.

Internal power relations

The coordinator of La France insoumise Manuel Bompard put pressure on the other groups in the National Assembly. They will have to “take their responsibilities, that is to say either vote for our proposals, or […] “overthrow us,” he said on CNews and Europe 1.

While Emmanuel Macron remains in the background (he has only extended Gabriel Attal’s post as prime minister “for the moment”) and is going to Washington on Wednesday for a two-day NATO summit, the left is insistently calling on him to “bow to the choice of the ballot boxes” by appointing a prime minister from the NFP, according to the former president of the rebellious deputies Mathilde Panot.

But the Macronist camp rejects this hypothesis.

“I do not dispute the possibility for the Republican left to govern or participate in a government. But 100 seats from the absolute majority […] “We have to be realistic,” said Renaissance Secretary General Stéphane Séjourné in a column in WorldThe new MP would prefer a “majority of projects”, but without LFI or Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

The incarnation of the left continues to raise questions within the NFP, where the Insoumis insist that Jean-Luc Mélenchon remains “an option”, despite his repelling effect on the other components.

The internal balance of power will be particularly decisive in these negotiations, with both the Insoumis and the Socialists trying fiercely to swell their ranks to have influence in the designation of the potential prime minister.

On Tuesday, Boris Vallaud mentioned a contingent of 65 to 70 socialist deputies, while Mathilde Panot assured that LFI could have a group “of around 80 deputies”.

Another issue about to open is that of the key positions in the Assembly and the presidency, which Yaël Braun-Pivet hopes to keep. Sandrine Rousseau also said she was interested on Tuesday, while calling, like the whole of the left, to exclude the RN from all executive functions by establishing a “sanitary cordon”.

The RN targeted by justice

Within Macron’s party, some are looking to the right, like Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. Others, particularly in the MoDem, would like to revive the social-democratic heart that brought Emmanuel Macron to power in 2017. Is that a way to imagine a grand coalition that would exclude LFI and the National Rally, and that would go from the PS to the LR?

This also seems complicated, because a large part of the right has already excluded this hypothesis, by defending an autonomous line under a new name different from “LR”.

In the meantime, Gabriel Attal intends to show himself to be at the helm. He gathered the Renaissance deputies on Tuesday morning, and invited all the parliamentarians of the majority to Matignon at the end of the afternoon.

Another speech will be scrutinized: the former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, who has ambitions for 2027, will speak on TF1 at 8 p.m., and will perhaps give some indications on the strategy of his Horizons group (around 25 elected officials).

On the National Rally side, disappointment has given way to the first settling of scores. The party’s general director Gilles Pennelle, architect of the famous “Matignon plan”, which was supposed to provide for all the logistics in the event of early legislative elections, resigned after the party’s setback on Sunday.

The party is also facing a new setback with the announcement by the Paris prosecutor’s office of a judicial investigation into suspicions of illegal financing of Marine Le Pen’s presidential campaign in 2022.