This time, the left has holiday duties: continue to keep up the pressure until the head of state gives in. “48 hours ago, I was totally unknown to the French. Today, 41% say that Emmanuel Macron should appoint me,” smiles Lucie Castets, candidate of the New Popular Front (NFP) for the post of Prime Minister. On BFMTV and RMC, this Thursday, July 25, the one who was appointed after fifteen days of (long) negotiations provided concrete elements on the first measures she intended to implement.
And her program begins with one of the flagship demands of the left: the repeal of the pension reform. The senior civil servant promises, upon her arrival at Matignon, to sign a decree postponing the implementation of the new law raising the legal retirement age to 64. Objective? To render “obsolete” the most emblematic and most contested reform of Macron’s second five-year term. In a second phase will come a bill of pure and simple abolition, presented by her government. This timetable would allow the left-wing coalition to jump an obstacle: the proposed repeal law that the National Rally plans to present on October 31 to the National Assembly.
But more broadly, the one who hopes to be appointed rue de Varenne has not closed the door to the possibility of voting on certain texts with the extreme right, an ultra-sensitive question on the left. “The question will have to be debated,” she said, anxious to defend “project by project” “voting coalitions”. However, the thirty-year-old clarified on the social network X : “The barrier against racist ideas is the absolute compass of my commitment. We will never seek a compromise with the RN.”
The former spokesperson of the collective Our public services also intends to increase low wages, as well as the index point of civil servants and to “tackle the poverty suffered by the French, by revaluing social benefits”. And the director of financial affairs of the City of Paris added: “What interests the French are public services, purchasing power, subjects that are never addressed.” For this “general approach” too, she did not rule out going through a decree. But after “consultations and consultations, in particular with the union world”.
“A day-by-day program”
A guarantee to guarantee “a change of method”, in the face of the “brutality” of the Macron years, she criticized. If she becomes Prime Minister, Lucie Castets wants to “turn her back on the brutal and authoritarian manner” adopted by previous governments. However, she has not ruled out the possibility of using Article 49.3 of the Constitution to impose a bill without a vote. But only “when it is necessary to bring about a law that is supported by the vast majority of French people”, she assured while the deputies who support her represent only 193 deputies, far from the absolute majority (289).
On other issues, such as nuclear energy, she acknowledged that discussions must continue between NFP partners, where there is no consensus on the issue. “Our job is to prepare a program day by day, month by month,” she acknowledged. The French president called the political camps for an “Olympic truce,” assuring that he did not intend before “mid-August” at the earliest to appoint a new government resulting from a “broadest gathering” to “act and have stability.”
“Give us a chance”
However, left-wing leaders do not view this imposed truce favorably, while the NFP rose to first place in legislative elections that did not produce a sufficient majority for either camp. The Olympic truce “is not in the Constitution,” mocked Marine Tondelier (Ecologists) on Thursday. It is not certain that “a New Popular Front government would fall a few days later, we must first, in a way, give ourselves a chance,” added Manuel Bompard (LFI) on TF1.
It will be a matter of “finding, subject by subject, a way to govern”, hoped Lucie Castets, saying she was “confident” in the stability of her future government. The fact remains that Macronist deputies have already announced their intention to censure any government including members of La France Insoumise, who have been called into question in particular by their refusal to describe Hamas as a “terrorist” organisation.
The RN also promised to vote no-confidence against a government that included LFI ministers. On Hamas, Lucie Castets answered yes on Thursday to a question about the “terrorist” nature of the Palestinian movement. “There is a priority, which is that the ongoing massacres in Gaza stop and that the hostages are freed,” she immediately added. Then she was questioned about the latest controversy, that concerning the Israeli athletes who, according to LFI elected officials, would not be “welcome” at the Paris Olympics. “They are there,” she simply sighed, anxious not to participate in this debate.