Status quo at Macron and the NFP… Constructive consultations?

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Status quo at Macron and the NFP Constructive consultations

Emmanuel Macron is meeting with the various political forces starting this Friday, August 23, to discuss the name of the future Prime Minister. The New Popular Front is opening the show and intends to impose the name of Lucie Castets, who has always been rejected by the Head of State. A possible change of foot?

The essentials

  • Emmanuel Macron receives the leaders of parliamentary groups and parties to “continue to move towards the constitution of the broadest and most stable majority possible” before the appointment of a Prime Minister and a new government.

  • The New Popular Front (NFP) is the first group to be received, accompanied by its candidate for Matignon Lucie Castets, at the Elysée this Friday, August 23. The parties of the presidential coalition and those representing the Republican right will follow. Marine Le Pen, Jordan Bardella and Eric Ciotti will complete the parade of politicians at the Elysée on Monday, August 26. The appointment of the new Prime Minister should therefore wait until next week, but no date has been given.

  • The NFP intends to impose the name of Lucie Castets for the casting of the future Prime Minister. The left-wing parties denounce a “coup d’état” by Emmanuel Macron who refuses to appoint the senior civil servant to Matignon according to the communist Fabien Roussel, but the head of state “has no choice” according to the ecologist Marine Tondelier.

  • Other names are circulating for the post of Prime Minister, such as Bernard Cazeneuve or Xavier Bertrand. Those of Jean-Louis Borloo and Michel Barnier have also been mentioned. A new name emerged this week, that of Karim Bouamrane, socialist mayor of Saint-Ouen.

Live

09:15 – The NFP opens the ball of consultations around Emmanuel Macron

It is the big day of consultations at the Elysée. And the first political group received by Emmanuel Macron is the New Popular Front expected at the presidential palace at 10:30. The alliance of the left goes united – with the representatives of the rebellious, the socialists, the ecologists and the communists – to the meeting and accompanied by its candidate for the post of Prime Minister, Lucie Castets. She arrives especially determined to impose her choice on the head of state considering herself to be the only legitimate force to govern due to her numerical superiority in the National Assembly.

08/22/24 – 11:52 PM – Louis Boyard accuses Macronists of stealing election results

Will Emmanuel Macron appoint Lucie Castets to Matignon? For Louis Boyard, the head of state has no other choice than this in order to respect the result of the elections. Conversely, the LFI deputy once again brandished the threat of dismissal of the president on BFMTV. “I tell you very clearly. It will be Lucie Castets or it will be the dismissal of the President of the Republic,” he declared. Recalling the outcome of the elections 2022 legislative elections in which the presidential party only obtained a relative majority in the National Assembly, Louis Boyard castigated Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to give the post of Prime Minister to the candidate designated by the NFP and accused “the Macronists of stealing the election result”.

08/22/24 – 11:11 p.m. – “We are ready to govern” assures Tondelier

Interviewed by BFMTV after the various speeches at the Ecologists’ summer universities this Thursday, and in particular that of Lucie Castets, Marine Tondelier assured that the NFP was ready to govern in the event that Emmanuel Macron appointed the candidate of the left-wing alliance to Matignon, which the national secretary of the ecologist party is calling for. “We are ready. He must appoint us, we want to govern to improve the daily lives of the French to allow their future,” she explained. While Jordan Bardella had explained that he did not want to replace Gabriel Attal at Matignon if his party did not obtain an absolute majority in the legislative elections, Marine Tondelier, who recalled that the NFP did not have an absolute majority, said that “if everyone does like him, then no one will be Prime Minister.”

08/22/24 – 10:24 p.m. – Lucie Castets pleads for compromises with Emmanuel Macron

On the eve of a closely scrutinized consultation at the Élysée, Lucie Castets declared that “compromises” were possible “measure by measure” with the head of state. While all the party presidents will be present at these consultations, the NFP candidate for Matignon has once again hammered home that the program proposed by the left-wing alliance “is not just a change of political direction, it is also a change of method and this will have to be radical.”

08/22/24 – 9:43 p.m. – Gabriel Attal considered a “favorite” for Matignon

After seven months at the head of the government, and having presented his resignation to Emmanuel Macron several weeks ago, the resigning Prime Minister Gabriel Attal remains the “darling” of the French according to a Harris Interactive poll for the magazine Challenge. Thus, out of the 35 personalities proposed for the post at Matignon, Gabriel Attal receives 40% of positive opinions, just ahead of Jordan Bardella (39%) and Xavier Bertrand (32%). Lucie Castets, the NFP candidate is only in 21st position, with only 17% of positive opinions.

Learn more

How soon will the new government be appointed?

Emmanuel Macron held a “political truce” for the duration of the Olympic Games, while Gabriel Attal’s government resigned on July 16. The President of the Republic had estimated that no new government would be appointed before “mid-August”, preferring “stability” for the duration of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Given the composition of the National Assembly, the President of the Republic has set himself the task of finding a Prime Minister capable of gathering the support of at least 289 deputies, in order to ensure stability. The same applies to the ministers that the latter will then have to propose. Otherwise, the new government as a whole would be exposed to a motion of censure which, if voted for by more than half of the elected representatives, would lead to the overthrow of the ministerial team. It would therefore be necessary to start all over again.

The problem is that Emmanuel Macron will have to accommodate all sensitivities, from the left of course, from the center naturally, but also from the right. If the NFP came out on top, the head of state has already ruled out governing with the LFI deputies. So out goes these sixty elected officials, who could be compensated by the sixty LR who should once again join the Palais Bourbon. Finding personalities who suit the ecologists, socialists, communists, macronists and republicans will not be easy. Not to mention the programmatic points on which everyone will have to agree. The negotiations are still expected to be long and complex. Suffice to say that Gabriel Attal should make extra…

What could be the profile of the future Prime Minister?

Emmanuel Macron took advantage of a summer break from Fort Brégançon to give new clues about the profile of the new Prime Minister. Clear elements are now emerging for the person who will take over from Gabriel Attal. The head of government will have to be “a man or woman, consensual, who pleases both the left and the right”, we can read in the columns of Le Monde. According to the Elysée, this personality will also have to give off “a scent of cohabitation”. This is an important clue about the composition of the new government and its political color. Especially after Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to see the NFP candidate, Lucie Castets, at Matignon.

Xavier Bertrand is one of the main names circulating for Matignon. The LR president of the Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand, himself, is even supported by several figures from the center and the right. “He is a great republican among the Republicans and a great regional president” declared on this subject Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, resigning Secretary of State for the City, on July 30th. The resigning Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin spoke of him “a politician with very great competence”, he could “greatly serve France”, a day earlier. Concerning the main person concerned, there is no direct contact with the President of the Republic. Bertrand and Macron exchange, certainly, but through “emissaries” according to information from Le Parisien.

The President of the Republic is consulting at least on a second name for the post of Prime Minister, it is Bernard Cazeneuve. The former tenant of Matignon under François Hollande remains however much less publicized than Xavier Bertrand, and much more discreet about his new political aspirations. However, according to information from Le Parisien, the latter recently spoke with the head of state “whom he had already seen discreetly at the Elysée in the spring (well before the dissolution). A profile that could quite satisfy the consensual dimension sought by Emmanuel Macron to replace Gabriel Attal.

On Sunday, August 4, the resigning Minister for Gender Equality, Aurore Bergé, also mentioned three names from the Republicans to fill the post of Prime Minister in place of Gabriel Attal. Unsurprisingly, Xavier Bertrand, the President of the Hauts-de-France region. Then Michel Barnier, former minister we told you about in this article on July 31st in the context of a possible technical Prime Minister. Finally, the name of Gérard Larcher, current President of the Senate was also mentioned by Aurore Bergé to join Matignon. The three “have solid experience of government, Parliament, and compromise”, believes the Macronist minister, from the right. Jean-Louis Borloo is also mentioned.



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