French Farce: Macron is yet unable to create a new government, while the Left could be united only against someone

Farce in France: the games by which Macron tries to bring into his service the left wing of the NFP, which also contains the extreme of the LFI, the Socialists, who try to be everything and their opposite, and the moderate right wing of LR continue. An affair that seems very long.

Lucie Castets, already disappeared?

Although they were united behind Lucie Castets’ candidacy, leaders of the New Popular Front are finding it increasingly difficult to hide their unease. Although the financial director of the City of Paris is still the number one choice of the leftist leaders, the possibility of her forming a government is receding: “She would jump at the first motion of censure,” say some members of the majority.

While the NFP continues to shout its victory from the rooftops, the mood is less warm in private. “We have to say we want to govern, but if we don’t govern, it’s better,” assures one regular in the ecological spheres. Fortunately for the left, statements by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, ready to censure any government born of the NFP, have helped to close ranks in the face of imagined collusion between Macron and Le Pen that is not there.

On the majority front, Gabriel Attal assured his troops of his opposition “to the unilateral application of the only project of LFI and the PNF, because the vast majority of French people reject this project.” Ensemble, ready for “new compromises on substance,” supports the appointment of a prime minister from outside the PNF. Castets runs into a wall of opposition.

Karim Bouamrane, the anti-left’s socialist card?

The mayor of Saint-Ouen, Karim Bouamrane, already listed for Matignon, has many assets to attract the left, but more importantly to divide it. “He has the profile to win over the socialists, but he will clash with the rebels,” say some on the left. Above all, it would put the ecologists in an uncomfortable position: “It would force Tondelier to finally choose between the Socialist Party line and the rebel line,” mutter the Greens. This is an odd socialist who prioritizes law and order, so the right wing of LR might also support him.

On the left they pray, without admitting it, for a profile like that of Xavier Bertrand, a rightward figure “By appointing a right-wing prime minister, Macron will at least ensure that the left is united in opposition,” says NFP. To put it succinctly, the opposition would prefer to censor one person a thousand times than to be censored a thousand times and can only be united against, non-supporting, someone. 

The RN’s strategic comeback

After a summer of a strict media diet, something that never hurts politicians, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella plunged back into the fight, head down. The ticket leading the Rassemblement National confirmed its primary recommendations to the Head of State after being invited by Emmanuel Macron as part of his major “consultations.”

On the issue of the future government, the RN assured that its deputies will censure any executive composed of New Popular Front ministers. This is a strategic change of pace, since the threat of a motion of no confidence by the Marinists has so far only concerned a possible government in which rebel or ecologist members would participate.

It is not a matter of appearing in the eyes of voters as passive, wait-and-see opponents, more concerned about preparing another dissolution than opposing a “system” that has probably cost them Matignon. “The voters we met this summer are disgusted, but they are up in arms and waiting for us to fight,” confides Sébastien Chenu. The relative silence of the Marine troops over the past two months has suggested a more cynical than combative attitude.

Some have conjured up the so-called “popcorn” strategy to describe their plans for the coming months: keep a low profile, let the NFP and the central bloc confront each other, and reap the benefits of public anger at the next ballot call. We simply did not want to add chaos to chaos, but to take a step back from ourselves,” retorts a person close to Marine Le Pen. “We would not have commented all summer on the comings and goings of the accountant of the City of Paris.”