Time is running out and tensions are erupting on the left, Attal on the way out

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Time is running out and tensions are erupting on the

The left is back to square one in negotiations to find a Prime Minister and form a new government. However, the appointment of a new ministerial team is becoming urgent as Gabriel Attal’s resignation is expected to be accepted as early as Tuesday.

The essential

  • The new French government is far from taking shape. No coalition seems to be under discussion and the New Popular Front has still not designated a potential prime minister to replace Gabriel Attal.

  • The nomination of Huguette Bello, president of the regional council of La Réunion, as Prime Minister was on the table on the left, but the person concerned declined the offer, which was not approved by the Socialist Party. The socialist refusal irritates the other forces of the New Popular Front.

  • If the left wants to govern after having imposed itself at the top of the legislative elections, Emmanuel Macron continues to call for a broad coalition ranging from the social-democratic left to the republican right, but no alliance is taking shape to form a new government.

  • When will the new government be appointed? Not right away, but perhaps within a few days. Emmanuel Macron is expected to accept Gabriel Attal’s resignation on Tuesday, July 16, to allow the Prime Minister to sit in the National Assembly. Gabriel Attal and his resigning government will, however, remain in place until their replacements arrive.

10:40 – Attal to resign soon, but no government to follow

Gabriel Attal’s resignation should be accepted this Tuesday after the Council of Ministers according to information from franceinfo and other concordant sources cited by BFMTV, but this does not necessarily mean that a new government will be appointed immediately. Gabriel Attal could remain at the head of a resigning government, which by definition cannot be overthrown by a motion of censure, to continue to manage current affairs until the appointment of the future government. Le Monde suggests that the resigning government could remain in place until the opening of the next ordinary session scheduled for Tuesday, October 1.

10:16 – Blockage or continuation of discussions on the left?

“Nothing is blocked at this stage” assures the socialist deputy of Calvados, Arthur Delaporte, on BFMTV. The elected official affirms that the discussions continue and that “the phones continue to ring, in one direction as in the other”. “I think that everyone is still managing to move forward” he continues unlike the rebellious Manuel Bompard who judged on the same channel earlier this morning that the discussions could not resume as long as the PS remained obtuse on the names proposed for Matignon.

09:46 – Darmanin ready to discuss with the socialists, but with the NFP

Gérald Darmanin has indicated since the beginning of the legislative campaign that he does not want to work with the New Popular Front, at least not with the rebels, nor with the environmentalists. On Franceinfo this Monday morning, he confirmed his position by raising too deep disagreements with the two political forces: “Are we for or against continuing nuclear energy? If we are for it, we cannot make a deal with the Greens, that’s how it is. “Are we for or against protecting the police and the gendarmes? If that is the case, we cannot make a deal with the NFP, because it is the disarmament of the BAC and it is 20% of prisoners released immediately, the NFP program.”

On the other hand, the Minister of the Interior is not closing the door to the socialists, he is simply setting a condition for the negotiations: that the PS breaks with the New Popular Front to participate in a broad coalition with the presidential camp and a part of the Republican right.

09:29 – Edouard Philippe pleads for a “technical agreement” with LR

The presidential camp is still looking for a coalition after these legislative elections and Edouard Philippe, leader of the Horizons party, is calling for a “technical agreement” to be found with Les Républicains, several of whose figures have requested the appointment of one of their own as Prime Minister. But while part of the former majority is working towards a coalition, another does not believe in it. François Bayrou told the JDD that he does not believe in the “success” of the “strategy” of temporization put in place by Emmanuel Macron. According to him, the head of state must appoint a Prime Minister without expecting anything from “party combinations”.

09:20 – The left “is not ready” to govern according to the RN

The left “is not ready” to govern, believes the vice-president of the RN, Sébastien Chenu, on LCI. “Every day there is an imaginary Prime Minister who is pulled out of the hat, what are these clowns?” he said on the continuous news channel, emphasizing the divisions within the New Popular Front and the inability to find a consensus on the future Prime Minister.

09:06 – Why did the PS oppose the name of Huguette Bello? Manon Aubry gives her point of view

It was the turn of another elected member of La France Insoumise to accuse the PS of being at the origin of a “blockage” on the discussions for the name of a Prime Minister: Manon Aubry. The MEP assures like her fellow rebellious members that she had no justification for the PS’s position and does not understand “the reasons” other than the obsession of wanting to see Olivier Faure and no one else at Matignon.

08:59 – LFI suspects PS of wanting to get closer to the presidential camp

While the PS refuses all the names proposed apart from those of the socialists according to the members of La France insoumise, Manuel Bompard says he suspects the PS of “starting to renounce the program to find a certain majority” with the left wing of the presidential camp. “There is no question of starting to sell off this NFP program, to throw it into oblivion, to allow a junction of sectors of the PS with a part of Macronism” he insists on BFMTV.

08:54 – Manuel Bompard speaks of a “deadlock situation” due to the PS

Within the New Popular Front, negotiations on the name of the Prime Minister “are facing a deadlock” believes Manuel Bompard on BFMTV-RMC. The LFI coordinator mentioned the “permanent, incessant refusal of the Socialist Party of all the proposals that are put on the table.” According to him, the First Secretary of the PS is in “total opposition to all proposals other than those that come from the Socialist Party.”

08:51 – Macron does not want to appoint an NFP government according to Guetté

Emmanuel Macron has “no intention of appointing a New Popular Front government” according to Clémence Guetté who denounces “an authoritarian drift” on TF1. The rebellious deputy of Val-de-Marne also calls for “popular pressure” to be exerted as was the case on Sunday evening with the mobilization of demonstrators on the Place de la Nation in Paris.

08:44 – Clémence Guetté criticizes the PS’s “successive vetoes”

“We still haven’t understood why Mrs. Bello wasn’t a good candidate,” said the rebellious MP Clémence Guetté on TF1, denouncing the opposition of the Socialist Party to the nomination of the former MP. The rebellious MP more broadly criticized the “successive vetoes by the PS to any candidacy that carries this ambition of a program of rupture” and indicated that she saw it as a way of complying with Emmanuel Macron’s wishes by sending a profile “more acceptable” to the head of state.

08:39 – Olivier Faure assures that finding the Prime Minister “is not a personal matter”

Himself a candidate for Matignon, Olivier Faure stated on France 2 that the nomination of a Prime Minister of the New Popular Front “is not a personal matter”. A response to the LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard who during the weekend denounced “constant blockages of the Socialist Party against any other candidacy” than that of its first secretary.

08:34 – Olivier Faure has “no concerns” about the ability to find a name within the week

“When it comes to choosing anything less than the Prime Minister, it takes time,” Olivier Faure said on France 2. He assured that he had “no worries” about finding a name that would create consensus within the week and drew a parallel with certain countries that take “several months” to find government coalitions.

08:28 – “Nothing was blocked”: the PS accused of having obstructed the nomination of a Prime Minister defends itself

The discussions were about to end this weekend after the French Communist Party proposed to nominate Huguette Bello for Matignon. But the president of the regional council of La Réunion did not reach a consensus with the Socialist Party and declined the offer after much procrastination. Judged responsible by its allies of the New Popular Front, the PS represented by its first secretary Olivier Faure assures that “nothing has been blocked”. “This candidacy speaks to me. […] But socialists considered, and this is quite normal, that the party which won the European elections on the left is the Socialist Party, the party which is most dynamic in these legislative elections (…) is the socialist group”, he explained on France 2.

08:18 – Attal’s resignation will be accepted tomorrow

After rejecting Gabriel Attal’s resignation on Monday, July 8, Emmanuel Macron intends to accept the Prime Minister’s resignation this Tuesday, July 16, after the Council of Ministers. The President of the Republic announced his decision during the meeting with the Renaissance heavyweights organized at the Elysée last Friday.

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How soon will the new government be appointed?

Let’s say it right away, not right away. During his speech announcing that he would resign on the evening of the second round of the legislative elections on July 7, Gabriel Attal specified that he would “assume[ait] [s]his functions as long as duty requires.” In other words, Emmanuel Macron will not be obliged to accept it immediately and even once this resignation is confirmed, a “resigning government” could remain in place. As a reminder, Emmanuel Macron took three weeks before formalizing the departure of Jean Castex following the 2022 presidential election.

First of all, the future Prime Minister will not be known quickly because Emmanuel Macron is constrained by his schedule. He left for the United States at the beginning of the week for a NATO summit and only returned to France on Thursday. Furthermore, he announced that he wanted to wait for the “structuring” of the Assembly (in particular the constitution of the groups and the election of their presidents) to appoint a new head of government. In a letter to the French people published on July 10, he also considered that it was necessary to “give the political forces a little time to build [des] compromise with serenity and respect for everyone. Until then, the current Government will continue to exercise its responsibilities and will then be in charge of current affairs as is the republican tradition.”

Given the composition of the National Assembly, the President of the Republic will have the task of finding a Prime Minister capable of gathering the support of at least 289 deputies. 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…

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