Is this already the end of the New Popular Front (NFP)? The leader of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, has refused to support the impeachment procedure of Emmanuel Macron, a threat brandished by La France Insoumise. On Sunday, August 18, the MP for Seine-et-Marne declared that he preferred “censorship” if the president refused to appoint a Prime Minister from the left. This new disagreement between the two main forces of the NFP, which continues to claim Matignon, cancels any chance of seeing this complex procedure succeed in Parliament.
In a column published in the weekly The Sunday Tribunethe Insoumis had indeed threatened the President of the Republic to take this step if he “ignored” the result of the ballot boxes. The Insoumis leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the head of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot and the coordinator of the movement Manuel Bompard had justified their initiative by the “institutional coup against democracy” of which they accused Emmanuel Macron, on the verge according to them “of appointing a head of government without taking into account the political result” of the early legislative elections.
Concretely, the Insoumis clan denounces the fact that the President of the Republic “brushes aside the result of the vote”, we can still read in The TribuneHaving come out on top in the second round of early legislative elections but far from an absolute majority in the Assembly, the left-wing coalition is claiming Matignon and would like to install senior civil servant Lucie Castets there.
However, Emmanuel Macron dismissed this possibility on July 23, before the Olympic Games, arguing that it would not succeed in gathering a sufficient base in the Assembly to govern. Since then, the names of Xavier Bertrand and Bernard Cazeneuve have been circulating. It should be noted that the head of state must consult the political forces on Friday, August 23, with a view to forming a new government.
A platform which “only commits their movement”
“By refusing the result of the ballot boxes and therefore appointing the NFP’s Prime Minister, Emmanuel Macron is further establishing the far right in the political arena. The impeachment of the president is then a serious option. We don’t joke with those who trample on democracy,” Raphaël Arnault, an unsubmissive MP from Vaucluse, complains on X. Louis Boyard, an elected official from Val-de-Marne, echoes the same sentiment: “The time of the Kings of France is over.”
Except that among the other members of the NFP, the initiative is far from unanimous: Olivier Faure hastens to write on X that this platform “only commits their movement” and not the whole of the New Popular Front. Before adding: “The response to the nomination of a (Prime Minister) who would not be in conformity with the republican tradition, is censorship.”
Marine Tondelier brushes aside the question
And he is not the only member of the PS to dissociate himself from the LFI proposal, like the internal opponent of Olivier Faure, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol. “Discussed? No. Approved? No. Engaging the NFP? No. This platform – neither done nor to be done – only engages its authors”, wrote the mayor of Rouen on X.
Asked by The Sunday Tribunethe leader of the Ecologists Marine Tondelier for her part avoided the subject: “I dare not imagine that Emmanuel Macron will not appoint Lucie Castets”, she said.
Even if the NFP had agreed on the Insoumis’ proposal, this “solemn warning” would have been complex to put in place: an impeachment procedure requires convincing the Assembly and the Senate to constitute themselves as a “High Court”. This requires, in particular, a two-thirds majority in each chamber, then during the vote of all parliamentarians. Unsurprisingly, the presidential clan was outraged by this idea. “Impeach the President for not respecting Mélenchon’s will? Lunar! LFI is once again pulling the left towards extremism and leaving the republican field”, reacted the resigning Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti.