Who at Matignon? These names circulating to succeed Gabriel Attal – L’Express

On the left as elsewhere, some are starting to get impatient. “We are taking far too long to find the name of the Prime Minister,” considers the newly re-elected MP Sandrine Rousseau on RMC this Thursday, July 11. By lingering too much on “shopped distributions” according to her formula, the environmentalist fears that the New Popular Front (NFP) will lose credibility. “We are worrying by not being able to come up with a government,” she goes so far as to admit.

Evil tongues mock the NFP’s difficulties in agreeing on a name. It must be said that in the media, each party preaches for its parish. Particularly on the socialist and rebellious side, where each claims the legitimacy of sending one of its own to Matignon. But in Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s clan, they swear that “nothing is wrong”. “We are working on the architecture of the government that we want”, dismisses Mathilde Panot, freshly reappointed as head of the LFI group in the National Assembly this Thursday, July 11, on Franceinfo. The fact remains that when asked about the possibility of a socialist Prime Minister, the rebellious MP grinds her teeth. “There is a republican tradition that wants it to be the largest political party in the National Assembly […] who can propose the name of a Prime Minister,” Mathilde Panot repeats in the media. Overview of the personalities, at LFI and elsewhere, whose name has been regularly mentioned in recent days to succeed Gabriel Attal at Matignon.

Clémence Guetté: the “chosen one” of the rebels?

Since Sunday evening, the rebellious executives have no longer been brandishing the Mélenchon brand loudly, but have instead been spreading the Guetté option. The Val-de-Marne MP and co-president of the La Boétie Institute, the think tank affiliated with LFI, has the wind in her sails within her political family.

“What if it was her?” asks Toulouse LFI MP François Piquemal on X (formerly Twitter). But when asked “What if it was you?”, Clémence Guetté, 33, sidesteps the question with a wry smile. “For the French, that’s not the issue. I think they want to know that the emergency decrees are going to be signed but without knowing who specifically,” she says on LCI. In short, the bottle doesn’t matter, as long as you get drunk.

Boris Vallaud: “At the kind insistence of his friends.”

Governing by decree and ordinance in the early days? The method proposed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon a few minutes after the results on Sunday was castigated by several of his NFP allies. First and foremost Boris Vallaud. In The Express, the former deputy secretary general of the Elysée under François Hollande, underlines the absurdity of “blaming Emmanuel Macron for brutalizing Parliament for seven years and doing the same”. This same Boris Vallaud who, for a time, was tipped for this position which crystallizes tensions within the NFP.

Because in the mysteries of the old pink house, some would have liked to see the leader of the socialist deputies donning the costume of Prime Minister. At the microphone of Paul Larrouturou on June 20, the Landais searches for the formula. When they were ready to become Prime Minister, “the radicals said ‘at the kind insistence of my friends’… Now the formula is, ‘I feel capable of it'”. You have his answer.

But that was at a time when the prospects of the left-wing coalition qualifying for Matignon were low, if not existent. When no poll gave the NFP the lead in the second round of the legislative elections. Now that the possibilities of accessing power are real, we look to History. And History is Jacques Chirac, president of the RPR appointed to Matignon by François Mitterrand in 1986. Or Lionel Jospin, first secretary of the PS, landed on rue de Varenne after winning the 1997 legislative elections.

Olivier Faure: the “natural” candidate

So, all eyes are turning towards the successor of the champion of the “plural left”: Olivier Faure. Boris Vallaud himself emphasizes in the columns of The Express that being “first secretary”, the deputy of Seine-et-Marne “has all the legitimacy to be the prime minister”.

The president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, confirms: Olivier Faure is indeed the “logical” candidate of her political family. In agreement with the secretary general of the PS who considers the deputy of Seine-et-Marne as being the “only profile” capable of “reassuring”, and thus, “being Prime Minister”. A title that the person concerned says he is “ready to assume”.

Marine Tondelier: a green jacket at Matignon?

On condition, however, that he meets the identikit portrait drawn up the day after the second round by Marine Tondelier. Requirement number 1: alignment with the program of the New Popular Front. Requirement number 2: the country’s ability to calm things down. Requirement number 3: “consensus” within the NFP. Finally, requirement number 4: “competence and experience.”

A collection of prerequisites that the head of the Ecologists, who was not a candidate in the legislative elections, had listed during the campaign, and that many personalities from the left-wing coalition have gathered, she swears. In the jubilation, the municipal councilor of Hénin-Beaumont, stronghold of the RN, may have seen photos of the Place de la République on the evening of the second round of the legislative elections, where signs displayed “Marine Tondelier Prime Minister”, scrolling on the networks.

Clémentine Autain: the new free electron

Can she imagine herself walking the corridors of Matignon wearing her iconic green jacket? According to Clémentine Autain, yes. Marine Tondelier “is one of the candidates” being considered, opines Clémentine Autain on BFM TV on Monday.

The MP for Sevran, who is among the five members of La France Insoumise who have been repudiated, would not, however, see any problem in succeeding Gabriel Attal. Her name is “circulating”, she confirms, and has the advantage of now being detached from the LFI label, much less bankable than in 2022.

Xavier Bertrand: a hidden desire

While the National Rally had its candidate for Matignon even before the dissolution was enacted, Les Républicains are thinking about the prime ministerial candidates on the right. In some currents of this party still stunned by the Faustian agreement signed between Eric Ciotti and the RN, we still imagine ourselves as the barycentre of an alliance with Renaissance and its satellites, Horizons and MoDem. The only configuration, according to them, that would prevent Macronie from having to cede the keys to power to the left.

Thus Olivier Marleix, the former leader of the LR deputies who gave up his place to Laurent Wauquiez, calls on Emmanuel Macron to draw from the ranks of the Republicans. Same story from the president of the Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand, who unlike the president of the Senate Gérard Larcher, has not dismissed the possibility of accepting the job.

François Bayrou: the faithful squire

A door that the head of the MoDem also leaves open: “I am here to help in every way possible, I do not exclude any way of helping this type of gathering”, François Bayrou casually evades on TF1 this Thursday morning.

The chief magistrate of Pau is one of those who dream of an alliance without the RN and without LFI, composed only of the “democratic and republican” forces. These political families who should, he lists, “talk to each other, know each other, accept each other and one day soon govern together”. But this Thursday morning, François Bayrou warned: “It shouldn’t drag on too long”. Impatient, like the environmentalist Sandrine Rousseau, to give the country a new government. From there to see the sign of a possible alliance…