While the threat of a motion of censure hangs over Michel Barnier, the New Popular Front appears to be in disagreement over the name of a potential future Prime Minister to present.
Who would replace Michel Barnier in the event of a vote of censure? The left could propose a name, but we still have to agree. While the New Popular Front ended up choosing – after several days of discussion – Lucie Castets, after the dissolution of the National Assembly, this choice is now called into question.
The Ecologists, the Socialist Party, the PCF and France Insoumise are in disagreement. “The tide has turned,” admitted one of those close to Lucie Castets to France info. “We have to settle the Lucie Castets option, if we replay the same match, we become powerless again, we have to reinvent something,” defended a notable member of the Socialist Party to France info. “For months and months, we tried to bring Lucie Castets back to Matignon. The president decided otherwise. We are not going to start arguing again now for hours and hours, we will first wait to know if “there is censorship…”, defended the first secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure. The name of Bernard Cazeneuve returns within the party. According to the deputy for Eure Philippe Brun, he would be “the man for the job”.
LFI is banking on an early presidential election
The Socialist Party obtained 64 seats in the National Assembly after the early legislative elections, and rose to second place within the NFP, close to LFI, which now has 71 deputies. Invigorated by these results, the PS seems to be projecting itself alone, without the support of France Insoumise, which is banking on an early presidential election. “The government will fall between December 15 and 21,” said Jean-Luc Mélenchon on France 3.
But the NFP will have to stay united for a potential motion of censure to succeed. Regarding the PS, Sandrine Rousseau, environmentalist deputy, “calls on them to vote for censorship, I really call on them to be responsible […]. If the socialists are missing, it would be an extremely negative message.”