Still away from power, the New Popular Front has a new turning point

Still away from power the New Popular Front has a

If former figures of the socialist left like Manuel Valls or François Rebsamen entered the Bayrou government, the New Popular Front was once again kept aside in the composition of the cabinet. Worse, the demands of the left alliance were swept aside by the Prime Minister. The socialist and communist parties and to a lesser extent the environmentalists had nevertheless reached out in recent weeks.

To the socialist party, Olivier Faure was pushed by its right wing in order to get closer to the Macronist camp. The most social democratic fringe openly considered entering a government alongside representatives of Renaissance or François Bayrou’s Modem, with whom exchanges had taken place even before the censorship of the Barnier government.

Olivier Faure, whose place as first secretary is threatened during the next congress which must be held by the summer, has therefore chosen to play the consensus card, which has not been very widespread in recent times in the PS. But the adventure is cut short: first of all with the appointment of François Bayrouthen the latter’s assumed refusal to make concessions to the socialists, both in terms of taxation and in the hyper sensitive issue of pension reform.

The ranks within the NFP not necessarily closed

For their part, the rebels increased their imprecations towards the socialists, accused of dividing the alliance for a place in government. The words were very harsh, which did not necessarily bother Olivier Faure that much. Because the boss of the PS needed to show internally that he was not “subject to the Insoumis”, a recurring accusation from his opponents. He therefore comes out of the sequence having proven that he was capable of standing up to Jean-Luc Mélenchon while not giving in to the declining sirens of macronism.

The analysis is obviously different on the LFI side where we judge that these negotiations have proven that no common ground could be found with the presidential camp, a theory that the radical left formation has always supported.

A divided NFP during the next electoral events?

Internal tensions within the New Popular Front should initially worsen on the issue of municipal elections. LFI has decided to invest fully in these elections which it had previously neglected. However, most large left-wing municipalities are led by socialist-communist-ecologist alliances. The irruption of the Insoumis could rock these unions. And then there is the presidential election where the principle of multiple candidacies on the left is already almost established, with the merciless battle that this entails.

rf-3-france