Macron refuses to hand over power to new left-wing Popular Front coalition – France now faces threat of protests and chaos

France is the second largest economy in the European Union, and at a time when locomotive Germany appears to be slowing down (it posted negative growth in the second quarter), keeping the wheels turning in France is particularly important for the entire EU.

The summer Olympics in Paris provided a much-needed boost to the economy, according to purchasing indexes. But the autumn looks bleaker as, in a worst-case scenario, France could be left with no state budget before the new year.

The reason is the threat of political chaos.

In France, he is the president. Instead of being the speaker, he appoints the prime minister. Emmanuel Macron therefore has enormous power over the formation of the government.

But seven weeks after he personally called new elections last summer, the president has yet to make a decision. Much to the opposition’s dismay, he brought forward the decision, only beginning formal talks with party leaders last Friday.

First up was the leader of the new Popular Front, a left-wing coalition that became the largest political force in the new elections. Made up of the Socialists, the environmentalist party “Ecologists”, the Communist Party, the radical left “Wild France” and several independent left candidates, it took 193 seats out of a total of 577, more than Macron’s centrist party and its allies (165) and the right-wing nationalist National Assembly and its allies (143).

– Lucie Castex, the New Popular Front candidate for prime minister, said as she entered the Elysee Palace on Friday: ‘We are here to ask the president to respect the election results.

But the response was not what she had hoped for. Macron continued to negotiate with centrist parties and right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen.

Left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon hinted at the weekend that his Free France party might give up ministerial portfolios if it made a left-wing government more tolerable for the center-right coalition, which has fallen sharply in the polls.

But transitional Prime Minister Gabriel Attar quickly refuted the claim.

Macron said on Monday In an open letter, the Centre Alliance and Marine Le Pen’s right-wing nationalist party, the National Assembly, said they would immediately overthrow the left government through a vote of no confidence, so he could not give the left a chance to form a government because he should protect “institutional stability.”

– This is not wise. He dismissed the result of the French vote as illegitimate. His role is to guarantee the system, not his own stability! Socialist leader Olivier Faure said he believed the left should at least have the chance to govern in a minority – something the current centrist government has been doing for years.

Macron said he would like to see a new centrist government supported by moderate left-wing and right-wing politicians because he said this would reflect the fact that left-wing and centrist voters had strategically voted to block Marine Le Pen in the second round of elections.

He also vaguely expressed a willingness to appoint a so-called technocratic government, like the one led by Mario Draghi in Italy in 2021-22.

Even if there is such a need However, most people tolerate it. And there is now a clamor of demonstrations and strikes within the left.

The transitional government will present a preliminary budget, but unless an agreement is reached by October it is likely to be rejected by nationalists on both the left and the right.

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