Emmanuel Macron has met with leaders of opposition groups, including far-right Marine Le Pen, to discuss their chances of negotiating a parliamentary majority.
The French president, whose center-right alliance was left with 44 seats to control the National Assembly, was said to be exploring his “room for maneuver” after losing control of the lower house in the elections. legislative elections on Sunday.
Macron is said to have rejected an offer from Elisabeth Borne, the prime minister appointed a month ago, to resign on the grounds that her government should follow suit. However, he will have to get the support of non-natural MPs to break the deadlock that threatens to paralyze parliament.
The leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, called on Borne to submit a vote of confidence. “She is OK. Cap. We are wasting time until he leaves, “Mélenchon told reporters.
“Madam Prime Minister, you should come here to seek a vote of confidence from parliamentarians,” he said later. However, after meeting with Borne on Tuesday, Macron’s party MPs defended her.
Gabriel Attal, a former government spokesman now in charge of public affairs, said: minister chosen by the French ”.
Borne will meet with political group leaders in the National Assembly on Wednesday and is expected to draft the government’s legislative calendar in the lower house on July 5.
Macron canceled the usual cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning to hold side meetings with leaders of major opposition parties and other possible parliamentary allies. Meetings are expected to continue on Wednesday. Elisi said the president would look for “possible constructive solutions” to the impasse.
The first to arrive this Tuesday morning was Christian Jacob, president of the right-wing party Les Républicains (LR), who finished fourth in the general election in terms of the number of seats won, behind the left-wing alliance. of Mélenchon, Nupes (the New Popular). , Economic and Social Alliance) and the far right Rassemblement Nationale (RN).
Earlier, Jacob told French radio that parliamentary stagnation was unprecedented.
“It simply came to our notice then. The responsibility lies with the President of the Republic. He has had a five-year term for nothing. Of course, there was the Covid crisis, but nothing has been done, “said Jacob.
Critics accuse Macron of deliberately weakening France’s traditional left-right parties since his centrist La République En Marche, now renamed Renaissance, came to power in 2017, allowing the far right and radical left prosperessin.
Jacob accused Macron of “using the extremes” for his own purposes. “It has put the country in this situation,” he said.
The gains of Nupes and the RN left Macron’s group to win just 245 seats in Sunday’s second round, well below the 289 needed for an absolute majority. Nupes won 131 seats, while the RN won 89 seats, an unprecedented increase in popularity. The traditional right-wing Les Républicains (LR), which had joined the Union des Democrates et Indépendants (UDI), held only 61 seats.
On Monday, Jacob had ruled out any coalition with the government or the president.
The second meeting at the Elysium on Tuesday was with Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist Party (PS), one of the four parties – along with the Communists (PC) and the Greens (EELV) – of the Mélenchon alliance. On Monday, PS, PC and EELV ruled out forming a Nupes bloc in the assembly saying they preferred to remain independent groups.
“Emmanuel Macron was legitimately re-elected, but he has not been given a clear mandate,” Faure told reporters before the meeting. Earlier, Faure told FranceInfo radio that he would tell the president “the country is not well, it is angry, but it is not blocked and there are possible policies”. He called for an increase in purchasing power and pensions and an increase in the minimum wage, and said that Macron’s one-man style of government “like Jupiter” is over.
Macron was scheduled to meet with Le Pen this Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. It is unclear whether he will meet with Mélenchon, leader of the radical left La France Insoumise (LFI), who did not run in the general election.
The first session of the new National Assembly will be next Tuesday.