Paris, 27 August 2024 (TDI): French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will not agree to a government led by the left-wing New Popular Front alliance (NFP), which won the most seats in July legislative election.
Macron said France needed institutional stability and the left could not win a confidence vote in the legislature.
The NFP, which put forward the relatively unknown civil servant Lucie Castets as its candidate for the slot of prime minister, in response called for street protests and Macron’s impeachment.
Macron – whose centrists were beaten to second place last month, said he would start new consultations with party leaders on Tuesday, and urged the left to cooperate with other political forces.
No one group was able to win a majority in the polls, with the NFP gaining more than 190 seats, Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance 160 and the far-right National Rally (RN) 140.
A caretaker government has since led the country, including during the Paris Olympics, to the anger of the NFP.
Macron has been holding discussions on a new government since the election, and said he would continue to do so.
“My responsibility is that France is not weakened nor blocked ,” he said in a statement on Monday.
“The Socialist Party, the Communists, and the Greens have not yet proposed ways to cooperate with other political forces. It is now their responsibility to do so,” he added.
But Macron noticeably failed to mention one of the major elements that makes up the NFP, the hard-left France Unbowed movement (LFI).
Strong Reaction
The LFI reacted angrily to the president’s comments, with national coordinator Manuel Bompard calling them as an “unacceptable anti-democratic coup”.
Communist leader Fabien Roussel said that Macron was going to trigger a “serious crisis in France”, while Green leader Marine Tondelier said on X that three-quarters of the French voters wanted a “political break with Macronism”.
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The leftist coalition has previously refused to take part in any future discussions unless the candidacy of Castets for prime minister is discussed.
However, the 37-year-old economist is unelected and considered as an unlikely presidential pick.
