Within the New Popular Front, the standoff between the Socialists and the Insoumis is intensifying to find the name of a Prime Minister

Negotiations continue between the four forces of the NFP. The Socialist Party is still pushing the name of Olivier Faure, but La France Insoumise does not want to give in to this proposal alone.

Time passes and still nothing. The left still does not announce the name of a Prime Minister in an attempt to force the head of state to accept cohabitation. The forces of the New Popular Front continue their discussions.

Discussions that take time because there is a balance of power between representatives of the left-wing parties. On TV sets, everyone overplays unity and promises to reach a conclusion in the next few hours, but behind the scenes, in the closed-door negotiations, it is laborious. For three days now, they have been looking for a consensus around a single name for Matignon. And the showdown intensifies on Thursday between the Socialists and the Insoumis.

The PS continues to push the first secretary Olivier Faure, when LFI does not want to give in to this single proposal and continues to support other names, of Insoumis of course. Some even turn up the little music again “Jean-Luc Mélenchon Prime Minister” between two doors, which electrifies the discussions even more. The divisions, swept under the carpet at the time of creating the New Popular Front, are coming back to haunt them.

Some accuse LFI of blocking the progress of the discussions. And for some, it is even clear: the fact that the Insoumis are slowing down the negotiations, pulling out new red lines from the hat as the hours go by, simply proves that they do not want to govern. According to an influential socialist, the Insoumis are only looking for one thing: the final confrontation with the National Rally in 2027. This is assumed by a close friend of Jean-Luc Mélenchon with whom franceinfo was able to speak. LFI would have every interest in pushing the PS into the arms of the Macronists to form an enlarged government. A trap into which the PS refuses to fall, a party that is trying as best it can to separate itself from the image of betrayal of the Hollande five-year term.

It’s a race against time. The new deputies are returning to their constituencies for July 14 this weekend. The ideal would be to conclude the negotiations before, with some announcements at last, especially since until the question of the Prime Minister is settled, everything is blocked, it’s impossible to plan ahead. And this while a crucial deadline is coming up next week: the election of the President of the Assembly on Thursday. And if the left were to appoint a socialist to Matignon, the candidacy for the perch will go to another left-wing political party.