French Left steps up pressure as Macron prepares to name prime minister

“They“They say they don't want La France Insoumise (LFI), but in reality, they don't want a leftwing government.” That is Fabien Roussel's view of French president Emmanuel Macron and his supporters. The national secretary of the French Communist Party (PCF), addressing nearly a thousand members at his party's conference in Montpellier in southern France on Saturday evening, warned the head of state about the “democratic power grab” he would be committing by not appointing Lucie Castets as prime minister. Civil servant Lucie Castets is the agreed choice as prime minister of the leftwing alliance Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP), which became the biggest group in the National Assembly after last month's parliamentary elections.

The Left's summer conferences held this weekend, ahead of the socialists' next week, happened to coincide with the head of state's agenda as President Macron finally started consultations to appoint a successor to Gabriel Attal as prime minister. Not content with just showing a united stance against Emmanuel Macron at those consultations - by allowing Lucie Castets to lead the discussions and by not making any dissenting statements - the NFP leaders have also sought to turn claims of sectarianism and factional in-fighting back onto the presidential camp itself.

For though things did not start well last week when the radical-left LFI's leaders threatened impeachment proceedings against the president – a move that was neither credible nor heeded by their partners in the NFP - LFI founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon was far more skilful in his challenge to the Macronists. Since the latter have regularly cited LFI's presence in government positions to justify their predetermined opposition to an NFP government, on Saturday the three-time presidential candidate raised the possibility of his party supporting an NFP government without his members actually taking part in it. “If Lucie Castets's government included no LFI ministers, would you commit to ... allowing her to implement the manifesto?” Mélenchon publicly asked the Macron camp.

“Since yesterday, they must have been racking their brains: 'Damn, what are we going to do? It will be too obvious that it's because of Macron, who doesn't want to respect the election result',” mocked Manuel Bompard, LFI's national coordinator, during the closing meeting of his party's conference on Sunday. The added advantage for his party is that if the scenario of supporting an NFP government without taking part in it did in fact come to pass, the LFI would not be unhappy to have escaped the disadvantages of being part of a government that will have to act within a highly-restricted framework.

The (long) battle for Matignon

Meanwhile, several Macronist MPs have confirmed that their real issue is in fact the emergence of a genuine political alternative, arguing that the NFP manifesto itself, co-authored by LFI, would be unacceptable to them.

“A government ... that implemented the NFP-LFI manifesto, with tax hikes and public spending, economic state control, complicity with authoritarian regimes, and a challenge to secularism: it's obviously a no,” declared Macronist MP Benjamin Haddad. His colleague Constance Le Grip echoed the sentiment. And another MP colleague, Jean-René Cazeneuve, even argued there should be “no more LFI [MPs] in the National Assembly”.

So far, the Macronist Parliamentary group leader and outgoing prime minister Gabriel Attal has not yet spoken on the issue. But the leader of the allied centre-right Horizons group, Laurent Marcangeli, was blunt in 'Le Figaro' newspaper. “It's a manifesto that, if implemented, would provoke a crisis. So my response to Jean-Luc Mélenchon is that we will oppose it with all the tools the Constitution provides,” he said.

The main problem with this stance by the Macron camp is that the alternative majority they hope for - supposedly going “from the republican Right to the social democrats” - seems even more improbable than an NFP government tolerated by the centre-right. This is why the leftwing leaders anticipate repeated crises ahead and will not admit defeat even if Emmanuel Macron does not appoint Lucie Castets in the coming days.

“The question of the battle for [the prime minister's official residence] Matignon would not necessarily be behind us,” explains Paul Vannier, LFI MP. “The government would risk a motion of no confidence. We will remain united to bring it down.” The LFI are also banking on lively social protest on the streets to increase pressure on Emmanuel Macron. This is also the case for the PCF, with Fabien Roussel talking of mobilising protests in Parliament, on the streets, and in the workplace. “We're preparing for an autumn in which we go on the offensive,” Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT trade union, told union magazine La Vie Ouvrière.

As for the green Les Écologistes, who are also part of the NFP, they privately see little hope of Lucie Castets forming a government despite the determination shown publicly by their national secretary Marine Tondelier. “I still think that Macron has no choice but to appoint someone from the NFP,” suggests a senior party member. “It certainly won't be Lucie Castets, but it's his only solution to avoid a crisis.”

Philippe Brun, a socialist MP from Normandy, expressed his frustration in an op-ed published on Sunday in Le Monde, a frustration aimed at both a presidential camp unable to digest its defeat and a Left too sure of itself, having secured only a third of the seats in the National Assembly in July's election. Departing from the “bill by bill” approach to governing that is supported by his party's leadership, he outlined the foundations of a new government based on a “non-censure agreement”, made up of “reciprocal commitments and not simple 'red lines' that would become ultimatums that changed according to current events”.

The challenge of unity

While the NFP's main parties have so far maintained their unity, it is clear that the uncharted territories that French political life is now entering will test them, both in method and substance.

In Montpellier, during the only roundtable event that brought together spokespersons from the four main NFP parties, communist activists in the audience expressed their frustration towards their partners, particularly the LFI. Several interventions targeted the LFI’s unilateral initiative over impeaching the president, describing it as a “betrayal” of the unity on display. They condemned “divisive positions that have contributed to making the far-right a model of stability”, and questioned the value of such an initiative when “the Left is stuck at 30% in the polls”. 

“The fact that we have raised the possibility of impeachment clearly marks the seriousness of the political situation we're in,” argued LFI MP Claire Lejeune, even though she admitted it had little chance of succeeding. At the LFI gathering in Valence, south-east France, it was rare to see representatives from political families other than LFI. Communist Elsa Faucillon and socialist Arthur Delaporte made brief appearances, but that was all.

For the LFI, the question of unity is mainly directed at the Socialist Party (PS), whose right wing is making every effort to exclude LFI from the NFP - and to govern without it. “If there are divisions today, they are not within the NFP, but within the PS. I think we're united and solid,” says MP Paul Vannier. “What endangered Lucie Castets was when socialist opponents of Olivier Faure [the PS's first secretary] began seriously considering Bernard Cazeneuve or Karim Bouamrane [as potential prime ministers],” he said, referring to the former prime minister under President François Hollande and the socialist mayor of Saint-Ouen in the suburbs of north Paris.

The sharing of an interview given by socialist Euro-MP Raphaël Glucksmann in Le Point magazine - in which he criticises both Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Olivier Faure (implicitly) - by socialist MPs also leads the LFI to believe that the next PS congress will be crucial for the future of the Left's unity. “Olivier Faure has a difficult role; we need to help him hold on,” says Euro MP Damien Carême, a former green now with LFI. “Everyone has an interest in staying united: leaving this coalition would be suicidal.”

This view was shared by the overwhelming majority of the green Les Écologistes gathered at their summer event in Tours in western central France. The disappointment of their performance in the European elections in June probably plays a role in their conviction about the need for unity. On the second day of their gathering a 'debrief' of the European campaign provided an opportunity for a few voices to challenge the decision to go it alone in that electoral contest.

Throughout the weekend, various NFP partners visited Les Écologistes. Socialist and communist elected officials took part in thematic workshops. MP Aurélie Trouvé represented LFI on the first day, and Olivier Faure spoke at the closing plenary session to reaffirm the strength of the NFP alliance.

Significant attention was also given to those ex-LFI MPs “purged” from that party at the last parliamentary elections. Clémentine Autain, Alexis Corbière and Danielle Simonnet will sit in the ecological and social group at the National Assembly during the coming parliamentary session. They were given a prominent role at the event. Another former LFI figure, François Ruffin, also spoke on Saturday.

This scene of political refuge also saw a few subtle jabs aimed at the greens' LFI allies. A workshop entitled 'How to unite against anti-Semitism on the Left' was an opportunity to discuss the  “anti-Semitism of some LFI leaders”, in which there was some confusion between genuinely problematic statements and strong support for the Palestinian cause. During the debrief of the European campaign, Grenoble's green mayor Éric Piolle criticised Jean-Luc Mélenchon's “monolithic campaign” on this latter issue.

The spectre of the far-right

One of the unifying factors of the NFP remains the threat of the far-right. Despite any prospect of a obtaining a ruling majority being swept away between the two rounds of the parliamentary elections, Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National (RN) has achieved impressive electoral results in recent years.

During a workshop organised by the communists as to the roots of the RN vote, the dismay was palpable. “What can we do against the rise of the far right?” called out a militant to the academics on the panel, who were at a loss to provide a ready-made solution. “In the Aude [in southern France], we have three RN MPs out of three; many areas are infested,” reported another. “There's a desire for the RN,” added another participant, “they embody change while we are reduced to the mindset of blocking them.”

Many sessions at the communist, LFI and green conferences were devoted to this specific adversary. In Tours, Les Écologistes leader Marine Tondelier did not miss an opportunity to mock the RN's president Jordan Bardella and his party whenever she spoke. Even in jest, the RN is taken seriously: the fear of seeing them come close to power in early July has left a lasting impression. And unsuccessful parliamentary candidates have expressed the “trauma” of having had to step aside to elect right-wing candidates - who “insult them all year round” - without being sure that this 'republican front' against the RN will hold much longer.

“The worm is already in the apple; Macron's camp is already voting on laws with the far-right,” Les Écologistes MP Léa Balage El Mariky noted under the wooden and canvas dome that housed the main stage at Tours, referring to the recent law on immigration. “Our responsibility now is to propose a path for the future and convince voters that these people do not represent a desirable future for France,” she said.

In the open letter to the French people drafted by the NFP before meeting Emmanuel Macron, one paragraph stands out. “To voters who did not vote for us, whether on the right or the far-right, or those who did not vote at all, we say: yes, we want to break away from the mindset of one camp against another and will work together to build the country's future and fund public services,” it reads.

This appeal shows that, as far as part of the NFP alliance is concerned, there is a need to address the RN electorate, to steer them away from that vote. But this is not LFI's preferred option, which sees more strategic gain in mobilising the “fourth bloc” - those who abstained. “This is a debate within the NFP, but we do not share the view that people choose Marine Le Pen simply out of anger or by mistake,” argues LFI MP Paul Vannier. 

Félicien Faury, author of a notable book that emphasises the racist matrix of the RN vote, was frequently cited at the LFI gathering in Valence to support this approach. However, the sociologist also asserts that that party's voters are not necessarily permanent prisoners of all the triggers that drive their voting behaviour.

At the communist gathering in Montpellier, young researcher Pierre Wadlow, who sees a lot of Félicien Faury's conclusions reflected in his own fieldwork, noted that the “image of the social world was not fixed” amongst those he had surveyed. Rejecting any “miracle recipe” that would be impossible to apply to such a mixed electorate, he pointed out that the “politicisation of the electorate often flies under the radar of leftwing activists, occurring in private spaces where they are rarely present. The only advice I would give is to avoid echo chambers.”

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• The original French version of this article can be found here.

English version by Michael Streeter