After the censorship of Michel Barnier’s government, Emmanuel Macron gave the feeling of wanting to move very quickly. Exit the consultations of all the political forces, the same ones which had multiplied before the appointment of the former Brexit negotiator last September: the choice of the new Prime Minister had to be rapid. The Head of State, finally, seems to once again be faced with the difficulty of finding this famous profile who can embody this “government of general interest”, as he called it this Thursday during his speech. He therefore relaunched in a new round of discussions to try to outline the contours of a hypothetical broader coalition around the future Prime Minister, having already received the leaders of the Socialist Party, the central bloc and the Republicans at the Elysée.
One thing is certain: the lines are moving two days after the resignation of Michel Barnier. Particularly on the left, where the first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, said he was ready to discuss the “government of general interest” desired by the Head of State, but on the basis of “reciprocal concessions”. A sign of openness before a meeting at the presidential palace on Friday, where Emmanuel Macron first met at the start of the day the leaders of his own camp (Renaissance, MoDem, Horizons, Radicaux, UDI), before welcoming at noon Olivier Faure and the leaders of the socialist groups in the Assembly and the Senate, Boris Vallaud and Patrick Kanner.
“The president has not set any prerequisites on any subject,” affirmed the number one of the PS, who called for “a left-wing Prime Minister” and made it known that his troops would “under no circumstances participate in a government led by a Right-wing prime minister. The socialists even obtained a gesture of openness from the head of state: he promised to meet with their environmentalist, communist and rebel allies, “probably Monday” according to the president’s entourage.
LFI accuses the PS of having “killed the NFP”
If the communists, through Fabien Roussel, have confirmed that they will attend the meeting, and that the Environmentalists must respond this Saturday, La France insoumise has unsurprisingly warned that it will not attend the meeting. ‘Elysium. “We are ready to govern on the program for which we were elected,” wrote the national coordinator of LFI Manuel Bompard in a press release, adding that “no discussion other than the appointment of a government of the New Popular Front can have place with the head of state”.
A choice which confirms a deep disagreement between Insoumis and socialists as to the strategy to adopt in the face of the current political situation. The former accuse the latter in particular of having “killed the NFP”, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon notably stressed on Friday that LFI had “given no mandate” to the boss of the PS “to negotiate an agreement”.
Divergences at LR
This idea of a grand coalition also angers some on the right. Like the resigning Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau, for whom his political family “will not be able to make any compromise with the left […] who voted for an irresponsible motion of censure.
Received in the evening this Friday at the Elysée, a delegation of Republicans gave a more measured speech. “We will not give in to the ease of censorship, except in a single hypothesis which would be that of a government implementing the program of the New Popular Front or including deputies from France Insoumise,” explained the leader of the deputies Les Republicans, Laurent Wauquiez. Without committing, however, to a possible participation in the future government, a decision which will depend on the proposed “government contract”.
In search of an “arc of government”, the head of state promised Thursday evening the appointment of a new Prime Minister “in the coming days”. However, this announcement should not come before Monday, according to several participants in the morning meeting with the central bloc. In the meantime, Emmanuel Macron must take a break with the reopening with great fanfare of Notre-Dame, a busy day for the Head of State who will receive at the Elysée the American president-elect Donald Trump and then his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
The François Bayrou option
Whoever it is, the new Prime Minister will have as a priority the budget, discussions of which in Parliament were interrupted by the motion of censure. While waiting to resume debates on this budget next year, a special law will be tabled “before mid-December in Parliament” so that the State can continue to be financed. “We are not very far from a regime crisis,” warned former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, who also advocates “an agreement that goes from LR to the social democrats”.
Who will carry out this project? François Bayrou and Bernard Cazeneuve, whose names come up, occupied the media space this Friday. The second notably recognized that François Bayrou “would make a good Prime Minister”. The names of the Minister of the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, Xavier Bertrand, or the mayor of Troyes, François Baroin, are also circulating.
The winner will not only have to put together a team that Emmanuel Macron wants to be “tightened”, but also deal with a National Rally which has just brought down Michel Barnier… And said he was ready to repeat the maneuver if he was not heard . “Let no one think that my hands will be tied from now on. I can absolutely vote for a motion of censure again,” insisted Marine Le Pen to the Figaro.