Political crisis in France: Macron refuses the resignation of his prime minister and receives political leaders

The political tango at Palazzo Eliseo in full dance. With the country submerged in a monumental political crisis after legislative elections and a sweltering heatwave, President Emmanuel Macron tries to create a parliamentary consensus to be able to govern after losing the absolute majority and being isolated.

First measure: did not accept the resignation of his prime minister, the recently sworn socialist technocrat Elisabeth Borne. In this chaos one cannot remain without a premier or a cabinet. But there will be a new cabinet, although it will not be appointed this Tuesday.

“Operation seduction” for a weakened Macron, where his parliamentary policies were rejected, 8 weeks after he was enthroned as president. It is a style that the French have rejected, a parliamentary authoritarianism without debate, the “giopitarism” of the head of state.

An idea of ​​not being center, left or right, which it generated profound confusion and unease among the voters. The feeling that the National Assembly had become the presidential “chancellery”, without debate.

There are no more limits: the head of state tries to charm the “republicans” republican conservatives, who refuse to reach an agreement with him, the socialists of the NUPES alliance, the communists. Then he will receive Marine Le Pen, the head of the National Rally, the far right, who won 90 lawmakers and it proclaims itself the first opposition party. An approach to lepenists? Everything is possible in these hours to achieve governance.

All summoned to the Elysée

On Tuesday the heads of six parties began to be received at the Elysée. The first was Christian Jacob of Los Republicanos at the time Olivier Faure, secretary of the Socialist Party and part of the NUPES alliance. He was joined by the centrist Francois Bayrou of MODEM, who will be very important in voting and political constructions, Stanislas Guerini, of the officer La República en Marcha, Marine Le Pen of the National Group, and Fabien Roussel of the Communist Party and member of Nupes .

Others, like environmentalist Julien Bayou, will arrive on Wednesday.

The socialist secretary Oliver Faure, an ally of NUPES, has already been summoned to the Elysée. “I will tell the president that the country is doing badly, that he is angry but that he is not blocked. There are political possibilities, for example the reassessment of purchasing power. If we raise the Smic (minimum wage) to 1,500 euros, we will be there. If he wants to revalue his pensions, we will be with him, ”Faure announced before entering the Elysée.

During the interview, Faure reminded Macron that NUPES “is not the extreme left, neither is France Insoumise.”

According to the socialist secretary, the president listened to the message of the legislative elections. He wants to know what leeway he has and has understood that he cannot be omnipresent, as he has been until now. If we continue in this perpetual game, one day we will all be overwhelmed ”, warned the president the socialist Fauré. “We need to invent a new way of governing. It is gestating in his brain, ”the socialist said after the meeting.

There is no more republican barrier

The republican barrier? It was used by Jean Luc Mélenchon to get his NI votes to support Emmanuel Macron against Marine Le Pen in the presidential election and help him win.

There was no “republican vote” in the legislative elections. It evaporated just like the Socialist and Republican deputies in Paris. They haven’t picked one for the first time in history. But in this “suspended parliament“as the British call it, without a majority, Macron must lean on the right, on the far right, on everyone. You will have to do politics. A traditional concept that he despises, because he associates it with “trade”, negotiation, usuryloss of authority, compromises and long “give and take” negotiations.

France is in a serious governance crisis. If they don’t reach a consensus against very high inflation, the cost of living, fuel prices and wages, the country explodes as in 2005, when the suburbs exploded, but for other reasons. National unity is essential right now, with Europe at war and the likelihood of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine spilling over into Eastern Europe, with prices unattainable for the new poor.

Without prejudices

Macron is now looking for a game of alliances that left and right have rejected as a method. A majority of projects, text by text, which will transform the French parliament into a German coalition.

There are no prejudices. If Macron gets a deal with Marine Le Pen and his National Rally, he will move on. He will be part of the “majority of action”, promised by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, in these dramatic hours in the country.

When the Republican leader François Jacob, who rejected every pact, Foreign Minister Yaël Braun Pivet wrote the idea with all his parliamentary experience. “We appeal to all those who would like to move forward with the majority.”

“Does it include the national grouping?”, asked the press.

Candide replied: “But listen, you know. This is the beauty of democracy. In Parliament, when we vote on the texts, we are not necessarily in a group ”.

Marine Le Pen, who has resigned from the presidency of her party to lead the group of its 90 parliamentary deputies, has been invited to the Elysée. A historic step for her.

‘Change Elisabeth Borne for another? This is not how something changes ”, Marine Le Pen analyzed, before entering the Elysée. “The French must be understood in what they said and expressed in this vote. This policy did not obtain an absolute majority in the last elections ”.

Mélenchon does not go

Nupes was the electoral alliance put together by the leader of France Insumisa, Jean Luc Mélenchon, to impose the left as the second political force in the Assembly. With socialists, ecologists, communists and France Insumisa. On Monday he asked that there be “only one group” in the Assembly but in two minutes, the project flew into the air. Everyone will recover their identity. He hasn’t consulted anyone before.

But this Tuesday Mélenchon immediately made her self-criticism. “I was too fast,” he admitted. He has announced that he will speak to all parts of NUPES to find a strategy, modestly. He is only the ideologue of the instrument, “a collaborator”, as he defined himself.

But this Tuesday Mélenchon was, as a teacher of a group of students on graduation trips, on the steps of the National Assembly, taking a picture with the new deputies of Nupes who have come to fill their seats. He is no longer a deputy. His dream is to be prime minister in cohabitation.

But Mélenchon will not go to the Elysée. He has been invited as the leader of France Insumisa but he has made it known that he will not be present. He will be represented by Adrian Quatennens, coordinator of his movement, and Mathilde Panot, president of the parliamentary group. For Mélenchon, Elisabeth Borne “has no legitimacy. You have to resign. “

France Insumisa “will suggest to President Macron a Constituent Assembly pass to the VI republic ”, in the face of the profound political crisis in which the country finds itself.

The idea of a referendum grows in France, together with the idea of ​​“national unity”, as announced by François Bayrou.

“The president is aware of what has happened. She is ready to take essential measures for the future ”, explained the MODEM leader. It’s time for the centrist Bayrou as Prime Minister?

National union will be the way out of this dangerous blockade in France. The president will have to be quick and inventive because the rest of June will have to be out of the country and France cannot be blocked. A government pact is underway.

Paris, correspondent

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