France’s Left Wavers as Macron Searches for a Centrist Premier
(Bloomberg) -- Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to name a moderate prime minister is beginning to show signs of progress as splits emerge in the leftist New Popular Front alliance.
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Some moderate members of the Socialist Party, which is part of the NPF, have called for a return to the negotiating table even though the party’s chief, Olivier Faure, refused to restart consultations with Macron after he rejected the left’s proposed candidate, Lucie Castets.
The French president said the NPF, which includes the far-left France Unbowed of Jean-Luc Melenchon, didn’t have the support to survive a no-confidence vote, even if it has the largest number of seats in parliament. Instead, Macron called for more moderate members of NPF including the Socialists, Greens and Communists, to work on a path to cooperate with other political groups.
Carole Delga, the Socialist president of the Occitanie regional council in Southern France, said Macron had the right to refuse Castets and Faure should have kept dialog open with the president.
“The left should present an action plan, a roadmap to change people’s lives,” she said in an interview with Le Parisien before meeting with Macron on Thursday. “That is how we can make non-censure alliances at the National Assembly — we need to open up to other republican forces to get consensus.”
The opening from Delga, who will meet with Macron in her capacity as a regional president, builds on comments from other Socialists, including Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, who was narrowly defeated by Faure for leadership of the Socialist Party last year.
“For the Socialists, there are two options: Either we sulk, refuse everything and sit in a corner where we participate in nothing,” Mayer-Rossignol told France Info this week. “Or we can say we won’t go overboard, because we aren’t Jean-Luc Melenchon, nor will we be Emmanuel Macron’s supporters.”
Macron threw French politics into chaos with his decision for snap elections nearly two months ago that returned a National Assembly where no group has enough seats to effectively govern alone, and there is little willingness to make broader alliances.
Names have been floated of Socialists who have stepped back from politics in recent years, who might be able to command enough support for the job. They include former Socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve and Didier Migaud, a former chief of the state auditor.
“Bernard Cazeneuve is a statesman, a man from the left, and of course a friend,” Delga said on TF1 Thursday. “He is capable of leading left-wing policies, of uniting, but it must be made clear that it won’t be the NPF program and all the NPF program.”
Asked in Le Parisien who could hold the job, Delga also cited the mayor of Nantes Johanna Roland, the head of Oxfam France Cecile Duflot, and the former presidential candidates Fabien Roussel, Yannick Jadot and Benoit Hamon. Delga added that she herself was not a candidate.
While Macron has no legal time line to abide by, finding a solution to the political impasse is becoming increasingly urgent as France needs to get to work on preparing a budget for next year. Investors are watching closely after dumping French assets and driving up the country’s borrowing costs on uncertainty over whether the a new government could tackle large deficits.
Still, while splitting the NPF could help Macron by removing a barrier to other imaginable alliances, it would be insufficient alone to resolve his problems.
Even if all the Socialist lawmakers defected — and it’s unclear how many of the 66 would compromise with Macron — the addition with his centrist group would be insufficient for a workable majority. Macron would still need some 60 more lawmakers from the right to be sure of having a government that’s not vulnerable to being kicked out by parliament.
In the parliamentary math, Macron also has to reckon with the larger contingent ever of Marine Le Pen’s far-right lawmakers who could table no-confidence motions to topple a government. She has said the party would support such a move against an NPF government.
The NPF’s proposals for massive increases in tax and expenditure have been a sticking point in negotiations on forming a government, after Melenchon declared the group in power would implement its whole program and nothing but the program.
Castets told BFM TV Thursday the NPF has moved past that stance and is open to a compromise. She said she still has the support of the four components of the NPF to be the next prime minister, but has no “personal problem” with Cazeneuve.
“He’s a former prime minister I respect, but it’s a question of what program and what mandate,” Castets said.
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