After more than two weeks of intense debate, the French left on Tuesday proposed to President Emmanuel Macron that senior civil servant Lucie Castets should be appointed prime minister. Macron immediately rejected the proposal, considering that the New Popular Front (NFP) is far from being a majority in the new National Assembly, despite being the bloc with the most deputies.
The president has no intention of appointing a prime minister until mid-August at the earliest, once the Olympic Games, which open on Friday, are over, he said in an interview with France 2 and Radio France. Instead, he is calling for a “political truce” during the competitions and for the current government, which has now formally resigned, to be in charge of the day-to-day running of the administration.
The early elections on July 9 left the House of Representatives divided into three blocs, all far from a majority. The NPF is the first in terms of seats, followed by the Macronists and, in third place, the far-right National Rally (RN).
“The issue is not a name given by a political party,” Macron said, rejecting the proposal for a prime minister. Although he admitted the defeat of the presidential bloc in the elections, he maintained that “it would be false to say that the New Popular Front has any kind of majority.” “The question,” he added, “is what majority can be obtained from the Assembly so that a French government can adopt reforms, approve a budget and move the country forward.”
The leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, then urged Macron to “stop delaying” and “respect the rules of democracy” by appointing Castets as prime minister. In an interview with Morning Express last week, Mélenchon had said: “Now [Macron] The president is denying the result and the more he does so, the more we are heading towards a violent crisis.” The Socialist leader, Olivier Faure, urged the president to “respect” the result of the legislative elections.
Castets, 37, is unknown to the vast majority of French people. She is the director of finances for Paris City Hall. She comes from civil society and has no particular political affiliation, other than the defence of public services with the association Nos services publics (Our Public Services), of which she is a leading figure. In statements to Agence France Presse, she said that, if she were appointed to the post, she would propose repealing the pension reform.
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Castets’ appointment comes after days of bitter discussions between the parties that make up the NPF and when the media spotlight is already on the Olympic Games.
The NFP is seeking to appoint a prime minister and form a government on election night, June 9. The alliance, which includes radical leftists, socialists, communists and ecologists, won 193 of 577 seats. It is the largest parliamentary group. Its absolute majority is 289 seats.
The debate in France these weeks has revolved around whether the NFP had won the elections and therefore automatically had the right to govern. Or whether, on the contrary, in a parliamentary system, whoever has the majority to do so governs.
The French Constitution complicates matters, as it does not provide that a government, in order to govern, must be appointed by an absolute or relative majority of Parliament. It simply requires that the president appoint a prime minister and that his government not fall due to a vote of no confidence.
The left argues that tradition dictates that the president appoints a prime minister from the first parliamentary group. The presidential camp responds that when this has happened, it is because there were clear majorities, and now there are none. The left claims in any case the initiative to form this majority. Macron replies that no one has won these elections and that the only possible majority is a coalition between several parties.
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