The far-left faction of the alliance that won the most seats in France’s parliamentary elections suspended talks with its partners on Monday, plunging the left’s efforts to capitalise on its victory into disarray.
The hastily formed Nouveau Front Populaire — which includes the far-left La France Insoumise, the Greens and the more moderate Socialist and Communist parties — had hoped to build on its election success by naming a prime minister and forming a government.
However, disagreements within the alliance over who to put forward are now spilling into the open. The acrimony is also imperilling efforts to agree on a contender for president of the new national assembly when it sits for the first time on Thursday.
La France Insoumise, led by the anti-capitalist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said on Monday that it would “not participate in any additional discussions on government formation until a single candidacy for the [president of] the National Assembly has been found and the vote has taken place”.
The party blamed the Socialists for the impasse. “We will not return until the Socialist party has renounced its veto on any candidacy other than its own,” it said in a statement. The Socialists, for their part, deny systematically vetoing other candidates. “We have made several proposals to move towards a consensual choice”, the party said.
The NFP alliance won the greatest number of seats in the snap parliamentary elections triggered by President Emmanuel Macron last month, but it remains far short of a majority of 289.
While the Socialists, Communists and Greens have suggested the alliance field “a unity candidate from civil society for prime minister”, the far left have so far rejected the idea. “This political blockage will not be resolved by improvising an “external” candidacy,” LFI said in its statement.
The suggestion that Huguette Bello, the president of the French overseas island territory of Réunion and an ally of La France Insoumise, could be prime minister ran aground over the weekend.
“No position is fixed . . . Our responsibility is immense. It is incomprehensible that one of the parties leaves the discussions we have held for weeks, at the risk of leaving president Macron’s alliance to take control,” said Fabien Roussel, the Communist party’s leader, in a statement as he called on the parties to resume negotiations “as soon as possible”.
The infighting could play into the hands of Macron and his centrist Ensemble alliance, which has the second biggest bloc of seats in the assembly, ahead of Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National.
“The left are not ready, and now that it’s concrete they’re panicking,” said one person close to Ensemble. “They say they are going to govern alone, but in 2022, we were at 250 and they told us we were not legitimate. It’s a bit absurd.”
Yaël Braun-Privet, president of the outgoing parliament and a member of Macron’s Renaissance party, is making a bid to be reelected.
However, there are also divisions within Ensemble — which includes Macron’s Renaissance party, François Bayrou’s Modem and former prime minister Edouard Philippe’s Horizons — over possible partners and the choice of a prime ministerial candidate.
Many centrist MPs are angry with the president for his decision to call the election and less inclined to follow his lead, according to people within the alliance.
Meanwhile, powerful figures within the group, including Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, interior minister Gérald Darmanin and Macron confidant Julien Denormandie are jockeying for position and pushing forward competing visions for how to put together a coalition.
Philippe has also been steadily distancing himself and his Horizons party from the president with an eye on running for that office in 2027.
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