The economist and climate specialist, Laurence Tubiana, is unanimously supported by the PS, the PCF and the Ecologists to become Prime Minister of the left, but LFI firmly opposes her candidacy.
She is the second candidate for Matignon put forward in public by the New Popular Front. She is also the second to face the categorical refusal of a party in the alliance, despite the support provided by the other three. Laurence Tubiana, an economist specializing in sustainable development and climate, was proposed as a possible Prime Minister of the left by the PS and was the consensus of the PCF and the Ecologists. But her name came up against the rebellious rampart, whose boss Manuel Bompard considered this proposal “not serious” on BFMTVTuesday, July 16.
The PS announced a partial agreement of the New Popular Front on the name of Laurence Tubiana at the end of the day on July 15. Oliver Faure, the leader of the socialists welcomed a “proposal of a common candidacy from civil society for the post of Prime Minister, allowing the entire left to unite around the project that we have supported”. But very quickly, the rebels expressed their opposition to the appointment of the 73-year-old economist.
Laurence Tubiana judged too “Macron compatible” by LFI
“I cannot believe that after having vetoed Huguette Bello’s candidacy, Olivier Faure is preparing to try to impose on the New Popular Front a Macron-compatible candidacy for Matignon,” reacted MP Paul Vannier. on X about Laurence Tubiana’s candidacy. A criticism made by many other rebels. If the economist and former president of the Citizens’ Convention for the Climate is accused of being too close or at least of being able to stick with Emmanuel Macron’s program, it is because she has been approached several times to be part of the government: in 2018 to replace Nicolas Hulot at the Ecological Transition and in 2020 to succeed Edouard Philippe at Matignon. However, the person concerned stated that she had never received a formal proposal. These occasions had also allowed her to reaffirm her commitment to the left and to ecology.
To these criticisms of “Macron compatibility”, the socialist deputy Boris Vallaud retorted: franceinfo July 16 that Laurence Tubiana “refused to be a minister of Emmanuel Macron [et] agrees to be the Prime Minister of the New Popular Front”. The economist has, however, taken positions consistent with those of Emmanuel Macron and has sometimes praised his speech or his commitment to ecology, as during COP27 in 2022.
Another, more recent, argument from La France insoumise to oppose the designation of Laurence Tubiana for Matignon: the economist’s participation in a column published in The world on July 11 and calling on the New Popular Front to “reach out to other actors of the Republican Front to discuss a Republican emergency program.” But other left-wing socialist and environmentalist figures also signed this column. On this point, MP Boris Vallaud responded that, with all due respect to LFI, opening up to other parties “is what we will have to do” to obtain majorities in the National Assembly.
A candidate from civil society against the advice of LFI
Another point of disagreement between the PS and LFI on Laurence Tubiana’s candidacy: the fact that she comes from civil society. The economist, who was an activist for the Revolutionary Communist League in her youth and was Lionel Jospin’s assistant, has always considered herself left-wing, but has not pursued a career in politics. Laurence Tubiana is, however, far from being a stranger in this microcosm since she was an essential link in the policy implemented on ecology during François Hollande’s five-year term.
While the PS, the PCF and the Ecologists said they were open to a personality from civil society being appointed to Matignon, LFI had, only a few minutes before Laurence Tubiana’s name was put forward, refused to support the candidacy of a non-political personality for Matignon. “The political blockage [sur le nom du Premier ministre potentiel] will not be resolved by improvising an external candidacy,” wrote LFI in a press release on July 16.
Laurence Tubiana, economist and diplomat
Coming from the left, Laurence Tubiana has been a major player in ecology in France for some time now. Before committing to institutional missions from the end of the 1990s, she chaired Solagral, a non-governmental organization that campaigned, until its disappearance in the early 2000s, for the development of agriculture and biodiversity in third world countries.
A diplomat, but also an economist by training, Laurence Tubiana played a central role in the ecological policy implemented during François Hollande’s five-year term. Without ever being part of the government, she rose to the rank of French representative for the Paris Climate Conference 2015, then ambassador in charge of climate change negotiations and finally chief negotiator for COP 21. Since 2017, she has been head of the European Climate Foundation (ECF).