The left-wing alliance, which came out on top in the French legislative elections without an absolute majority, claimed on Tuesday the right to implement its breakaway programme, even if it means forming parliamentary alliances on a case-by-case basis, while waiting to designate a personality to lead the government.
Tight negotiations are continuing while the Macronist camp has not completely ruled out forming a new team with the Republican right.
President Emmanuel Macron, who has not yet spoken since the results, is preparing to leave for the NATO summit in Washington.
On Sunday, the country was expecting a surge from the extreme right, but it was a surprise surge from the New Popular Front (NFP) that the voters, highly mobilized with 66.63% participation, placed in the lead, a motley alliance of the radical left, communists, socialists and environmentalists.
Those who yesterday quarreled daily must now come to an agreement, starting with the designation of a consensual figure to embody their project. A name could come out of the hat by the end of the week, or the beginning of next week.
On Tuesday, as they entered the National Assembly one after the other, the left-wing deputies seemed to rule out broadening their political base and giving up on joining the centre-right, even though they only have 190 deputies, far from an absolute majority (289).
“I don’t think we are in a position today to have a broader coalition in government than the New Popular Front,” declared the Green senator Yannick Jadot on the private channel TF1, for whom “coalitions will be built in the Assembly.”
As for the coordinator of La France insoumise (LFI, radical left) Manuel Bompard, he warned that the left would implement its program and that it would be up to “each of the groups to take its responsibilities, […] either to vote for our proposals, or […] to overthrow us.”
Unraveling flagship measures
The coalition wants to reverse several key measures passed by the presidential camp, starting with the pension reform, a very unpopular text from Macron’s second five-year term.
The union of the left also plans to repeal an immigration law and yet another reform of unemployment insurance, as well as an increase in the minimum wage.
The rating agency Moody’s warned on Tuesday that the repeal of the pension reform and the absence of budgetary savings measures could weigh on France’s rating. Without a clear majority, “voting on laws will certainly be difficult,” it also judged.
France’s credit rating would be “under pressure” if the country failed “to reduce its large public deficit”, which slipped sharply last year to 5.5% of GDP in 2023, the credit agency S&P Global warned.
On Monday, President Emmanuel Macron anticipated long and tortuous discussions, asking his resigning prime minister Gabriel Attal to stay in office to “ensure the stability of the country” as Paris hosts the Olympic Games in less than three weeks.
For France, accustomed to relative political stability thanks to its 1958 constitution, the situation is unprecedented.
Stay in the center of the game
The left-wing alliance is opposed by a solid Macronist camp (around 160 seats), a Republican right which could play a pivotal role with some 66 seats and the extreme right of the National Rally (RN) which, with its allies (more than 140 seats), intends to prepare for the 2027 presidential election.
The left-wing parties “cannot claim to govern on their own,” said outgoing Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet on Tuesday, recalling that the New Popular Front was “very far” from the majority.
“We are capable of representing another alternative political force,” she added, calling for “building a common road map” with “all the parties that wanted us to work together, from the Republicans to the social-democratic left.”
Determined to remain at the centre of the game after a campaign which avoided a rout in the presidential camp, Gabriel Attal is bringing together the majority deputies on Tuesday.
As for the far right, it is reeling from the blow after having hoped that its president Jordan Bardella, 28, would become prime minister. On Monday, the latter acknowledged “errors” in his campaign, marked by racist excesses and other manifestations of incompetence by many RN candidates.
The party, whose leader Marine Le Pen is aiming for the presidential election after being defeated three times in this election since 2012, intends to leave its mark on the National Assembly.
On Tuesday, left-wing MPs called for preventing the RN from accessing strategic positions in the Assembly, which RN MPs denounced as “anti-democratic”.