France’s left-wing alliance shaken: Left suspends negotiations

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The far-left faction of the alliance that won the most seats in the French parliamentary elections suspended talks with its partners on Monday, throwing chaos into the left’s efforts to capitalize on its victory.

The hastily formed Nouveau Front Populaire – which includes the radical left La France Insoumise, the Greens and the more moderate Socialist and Communist parties – had hoped to build on its electoral success by appointing a prime minister and forming a government.

But now the alliance’s disagreements over the nomination are coming to the fore. The bitterness is also jeopardising efforts to agree on a candidate for president of the new National Assembly when it meets for the first time on Thursday.

The La France Insoumise party, led by anti-capitalist agitator Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said on Monday that it would “not take part in any further discussions on forming a government until a single candidate for (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 go back until the Socialist Party has given up its right of veto on candidates other than its own,” it said in a statement. The Socialists, for their part, deny systematically blocking other candidates. “We have made several proposals to reach a consensual decision,” the party said.

In the early parliamentary elections initiated by President Emmanuel Macron last month, the NFP alliance won the most seats, but it is still far from a majority of 289 seats.

While the Socialists, Communists and Greens have proposed to the alliance that it “put forward a unity candidate from civil society for the post of Prime Minister”, the extreme left has so far rejected this idea. “This political deadlock will not be resolved by an improvised ‘external’ candidacy,” says the LFI statement.

The assumption that Huguette Bello, president of the French overseas territory of Réunion and ally of La France Insoumise, could become prime minister failed at the weekend.

“No position is fixed… Our responsibility is immense. It is incomprehensible that one of the parties would abandon the talks we have been holding for weeks and risk leaving President Macron’s alliance in control,” Fabien Roussel, leader of the Communist Party, said in a statement, calling on the parties to resume negotiations “as soon as possible.”

The internal power struggles could play into the hands of Macron and his centrist alliance “Ensemble”. The alliance has the second largest number of seats in the assembly, ahead of Marine Le Pen’s far-right “Rassemblement National”.

“The left is not ready and now that it is concrete, they are panicking,” said a person close to Ensemble. “They say they will govern alone, but in 2022 there were 250 and they told us we were not legitimate. It’s a bit absurd.”

Yaël Braun-Privet, President of the outgoing Parliament and member of Macron’s Renaissance party, is running for re-election.

However, there are also disagreements within the ensemble – which includes Macron’s Renaissance party, François Bayrou’s Modem and former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe’s Horizons party – over possible partners and the choice of a candidate for the post of prime minister.

Many centrist MPs are angry with the president and his decision to call new elections and are less inclined to follow his example, members of the alliance say.

Meanwhile, influential figures within the group are jockeying for position and representing competing visions for the formation of a coalition. These include Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin and Macron’s confidant Julien Denormandie.

In addition, Philippe and his party Horizonte are increasingly distancing themselves from the president, with the aim of running for office in 2027.