- by William Briggs
- The Guardian
- Issue #2116
Photo: Jeanne Menjoulet –flickr.com (CC BY 2.0)
After 60 days without a government, France has one the people don’t want. President Macron’s refusal to accept the New Popular Front (NFP) choice for prime minister, Lucie Castets, has revealed both the contempt he has for the left and for the choice of the French people, but also exposes the bankruptcy of bourgeois democracy.
The left-wing coalition won 190 seats in the election of July. Macron’s Ensemble centrists have 160 and the far-right Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (NR) won 140 seats.
Macron, as head of state, ‘chooses’ the prime minister but is not obliged to select the candidate presented by the biggest group. The left must rely on Macron’s group to have Castets declared prime minister. By refusing to accept the right of the NFP to lead the government, Macron has led the country into disarray.
Macron’s own party could only form government with the approval of either the far-right or from the left. While nobody has expressly stated that Macron and the Le Pen party could work together, there are few other options. Such a position would be an appalling sell-out of the wishes of most French people, including many who voted with Ensemble.
Th NFP have called for mass protests at the position adopted by Macron. All participating parties and organisations in the NFP have agreed that the issue needs to be taken to the street, with the notable exception of the French Socialist Party who are vacillating and are not expected to actively support the protest action. This will only embolden Macron who appears adamant that the left will not form government. Splitting the left would serve his interests admirably.
Macron argues that an NFP-led government would be unable to function. By this he means that it would simply not have the numbers in any no-confidence motion. What this means in reality is that Macron’s electoral group would support the neo-fascists to bring down the NFP. The only winner in such a scenario would be the far-right RN and Le Pen. The French president has stated that his ‘responsibility is that the country is not blocked nor weakened.’ By not supporting the biggest group in the French assembly, Macron is doing exactly that; blocking and weakening the country.
The NFP has promised to be a strongly reforming government. It has pledged to abandon austerity budgets and to support programs that support the working class and the poor. This is anathema to both the centrists and the far-right and a dangerous alignment seems possible.
Macron took 60 days of political paralysis to decide to impose a ‘centre-right’ PM, Michel Barnier on the National Assembly. As PM, Barnier would be the creature of the far-right National Rally part.
The coming period for France will be an historic one. Already the last edifices of democracy are being pulled down. The peoples’ wishes have been trampled upon. The left is rightly taking the issue to the people and to the streets.
