The clock is ticking for Emmanuel Macron. Since the legislative elections last July, which resulted in the victory of the New Popular Front (NFP), the president has been slow to appoint a new Prime Minister. The Olympic Games have given him several weeks of additional time, which nevertheless now seem to have passed. On Friday, August 23, the president met with the left-wing coalition, representatives of the presidential camp (Renaissance) and the Republican right (Editor’s note: the new name for the Republicans in the Assembly). On Monday evening, he will end his tour of the Chamber by receiving the leaders of the National Rally (RN).
According to several sources who spoke with Emmanuel Macron on Fridaythe latter could then address the French in the evening to make a form of report of these consultations. According to the newspaper The World, This speech (whose form has not been set) could be the moment when Emmanuel Macron would announce that he is removing Lucie Castets from the candidates for Matignon, due to threats of immediate censure from a New Popular Front government. The president’s consultations could resume from Tuesday, according to several media outlets.
New Prime Minister: the name the French want to see at Matignon
NFP wants to force Macron to appoint a new left-wing prime minister
Back Friday morning. Against all expectations, the representatives of the NFP, who came 12 at the Elysée at 10:30, showed a certain optimism at the end of their meeting with the president. Manuel Bompard, coordinator of La France insoumise, was delighted that the president “begins to recognize the election result”. A vote, which according to the NFP, forces the president to appoint a Prime Minister from their camp. On this subject, the official candidate of the coalition, Lucie Castets, reiterated “to be ready today to go and build coalitions, to discuss with other political forces”. But according to The Echoesthe nomination of Lucie Castets was again excluded by Emmanuel Macron, during a lunch this Friday with the executives of the presidential party.
Twelve representatives of the NFP opened the talks with the president this Friday morning at 10:30 a.m. Credit: AFP / DIMITAR DILKOFF
On the left, however, another figure little known to the general public has recently emerged. Karim Bouamrane, socialist mayor of Saint-Ouen in Seine-Saint-Denis, very critical of LFI, has benefited from a media frenzy for some time. In particular thanks to the Olympic Games, part of which took place in his town, which earned him a portrait in the New York Times.
Read alsoExclusive poll: left-wing voters who no longer want LFI
Attal will file a motion of censure if LFI is in government
As for the allies of the presidential camp, Edouard Phillippe, president of the Horizons party and François Bayrou, president of the Democratic Movement party (MoDem), who accompanied Gabriel Attal, the resigning Prime Minister, remained silent in front of the press at the end of their meeting this Friday. A little later, the current head of government sent a letter to his colleagues in which he specifies that he “defended the appointment of a new Prime Minister not coming from the central bloc parties.” He did, however, clarify that the « bloc central » would file a motion of censure if a government were formed that included members of LFI.
On the right, having left his meeting with the president at the end of the afternoon, Laurent Wauquiez also assured that he would “barrier to France Insoumise” promising to table a motion of censure if ministers were from this political party. At the same time, he announced that he would not participate in “no government coalition”This, while our Harris Interactive poll confirmed last Monday the momentum of the LR president of the Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand.
Wait, again?
Despite consulting all the political forces in the National Assembly, Emmanuel Macron could still be slow to appoint a head of government. The opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games will take place on Wednesday, August 28. Will he do so before then, on Tuesday? In any case, it seems unlikely that the president will appoint a prime minister on this Olympic day when the spotlight should be on disability and inclusion.
Then the very next day, Thursday 29 August, the Head of State is due to fly to Serbia for a state visit. Would he decide to leave the country for two days without having appointed a new Prime Minister, when for the opposition, he would no longer have an excuse? It seems risky, but by definition, nothing is impossible. However, at the end of the NFP consultation, Stéphane Peu, Communist MP for Saint-Denis, assured the Parisian that the head of state “would make his choice on Tuesday and Wednesday, give or take 48 hours.”
Macron in Serbia, EU candidate, at the end of August
So there remains the hypothesis of Tuesday, August 27, the day after the end of the consultations. Nicole Belloubet, Minister of National Education, is to speak on the occasion of the start of the school year. Enough to inspire Macron and ring the bells of the political return with a new tenant at Matignon? Nothing seems to be set yet, the date of Wednesday evening also remaining regularly cited, in the event that the consultations resume – formally or informally – on Tuesday due to lack of consensus.
