France: Macron almost split the Socialists. The Left of NFP is becoming a joke.

La France insoumise (LFI) has no intention of easing the pressure on French President Macron and seems well determined to give him trouble. In the wake of Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to appoint Lucie Castets to Matignon, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s movement called for demonstrations on September 7 “against the coup d’état” of the President of the Republic. It is back to the streets, and we are not even in the fall yet.

However, this initiative has met with only moderate enthusiasm within the PS, the Socialist Party. “The Socialist Party is not calling for demonstrations at this stage. The urgency is in the debate, in the political discussion, even if the choice made by Emmanuel Macron worries us deeply,” Pierre Jouvet, number two of the pink party, told Franceinfo. Olivier Faure, the party’s first secretary, said in a low voice that he would “take part” in the demonstrations, but at the same time made it clear that he would not “try to create chaos.”

His internal opponents are not in favor of this modus operandi, which is typical of LFI. “Demonstrations are not a good political response,” says Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, mayor of Rouen and deputy first secretary of the PS. He opposed Olivier Faure at the January 2023 conference in Marseille.

In search of a consensus majority

On the one hand, the PS regrets Emmanuel Macron’s decision not to appoint Lucie Castets to Matignon. The SP’s main leaders have joined the criticism from across the left.
Some remain no less bitter about the strategy of the NFP, the leftist alliance, which failed to win Matignon. “The responsibility of the President of the Republic should have been to ask the main bloc to present government proposals. The responsibility of the bloc that came out on top, namely the Left, should have been to seek a consensus majority rather than a caste of supposed prime ministers,” said Lamia El Aaraje, deputy mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo.
Prior to the call for demonstrations, the PS had also dissociated itself from the LFI proposal to launch impeachment proceedings against Emmanuel Macron.

Fracture line

Fundamentally, the strategy of alliance with LFI continues to split the pink party in two. Nupes, the precursor to the NFP, had already exploded. The fracture line that emerged from the last Congress remains more alive than ever. The struggle between Olivier Faure and Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol illustrated a party divided between two almost diametrically opposed lines. Half would like to go into government with Macon, half would like to remain loyal to the leftist alliance.

Today, those in favor of distancing themselves from LFI are once again making their voices heard. The good result obtained in the European elections by Raphaël Glucksmann, who believes that it is necessary to “turn the page with Mélenchon” (and also with Macron), has given them new fuel. They are particularly critical of Olivier Faure’s decision to cut ties with the Head of State.

“It was a mistake to do so,” said a member of the party’s national office, which met Tuesday at the request of the minority currents (those who lost at the January 2023 congress). The same people also criticized Olivier Faure for deciding major policy directions on his own, without consulting the national office.

“Emmanuel Macron is responsible for the current chaos. But we should not add our faults to his. We are not in favor of systematic censorship of a government not led by Lucie Castets. Emmanuel Macron can appoint a leftist figure, who will present a leftist project,” adds Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol. The Rouen mayor’s line is twofold: “no submission to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, no compromise with Emmanuel Macron.”

“On the brink of a rupture,” according to Hélène Geoffroy.

The PS will be back in action this weekend at the Socialist Campus in Blois, and once again it promises to be a lively event. At the National Bureau meeting, opponents of Olivier Faure called out the First Secretary in a meeting where tones were “lively,” according to one participant.

“I say it solemnly, the party is on the verge of breaking up. And I will not engage in any exit in my name, I will not create another party, but if we become appendages of the far left, then the central force of the left will be reconstituted elsewhere, with the force of reality,” said Hélène Geoffroy, mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin and close to Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol.

Macron seeks to break NFP

Emmanuel Macron, who constantly calls on the PS and, to a lesser extent, the ecologists and communists, to disband the PNF, is watching with interest what is happening in the PS. For the moment, however, it has been rejected out of hand. “It’s not even for a moment about becoming Macron’s auxiliaries and making sure to prolong what has been done for seven years,” Olivier Faure warned France 2. Because dissolving the NFP and making the deal with Macron would be a betrayal of the eelectorate and make the left look like the Macronian “useful idiots.”

But this position is not unanimous. In an article published in ‘Le Monde’ before Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to nominate Lucie Castets, PS deputy Philippe Brun argued for “a non-censorship agreement with a sufficient number of political groups to reach the threshold of a majority of 289 deputies in the National Assembly ” and thus allow the existence of a government without going through a coalition. A trick to keep the government from falling immediately.

This position has been welcomed by several elected members of the Socialist Party, such as Carole Delga, president of the Occitanie region, who is also leading a campaign to distance herself from LFI.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s movement believes in the solidity of the PNF. “I don’t think the PS will give in to Macron’s advances. The initiatives in favor of talks with the Macronists come from isolated individuals or groups. What leftist prime minister would agree not to repeal pension reform? It is impossible to accept. If you are Macron’s prime minister and you carry out his policies without any left-wing marker, it is fatal,” says an Insoumis leader.