What is preventing Macron from naming France’s next PM?

Suspense continues in France as parties have so far not been able to arrive at a consensus for the post of the prime minister.

In the French parliamentary elections held in two rounds on June 30 and July 7, the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NPF) secured the most seats and relegated the far-right National Rally (RN), which was widely expected to win the elections, to the third post.

In shock results, the NPF came first by winning 188 of 577 seats, Macron’s centrist Ensemble (ENS) bloc came second with 161 seats, and the RN came third with 142 seats. The shock results were produced by the tactical voting arrangement between NPF and ENS in the second round of polls. Under the arrangement, more than 200 leftist and centrist candidates withdrew to consolidate all non-right voters and prevent the break-up of all non-right votes.

Even though the NPF came first, the bloc has not yet announced the prime ministerial candidate. Moreover, the nomination by the bloc is not enough. In the French political system, the president appoints the prime minister who is then approved by the parliament. So far, there is no certainty on the name of the next French premier.

Macron rejects far-left’s PM candidacy

While the leftist NPF and centrist ENS formed the ad-hoc ‘Republican Front’ to keep the far-right RN out of power, they had no actual alliance regarding the formation of the government. As the three blocs have won roughly a third of seats, the negotiations to reach the majority-mark could take a while as deals are struck and coalition partners’ concessions are made and demands are addressed.

Meanwhile, Macron has rejected the prime ministerial candidacy of the far-left France Unbowed (LFI), which emerged as the single-largest party with 78 seats, according to AFP. The party chief Jean-Luc Mélenchon carries the baggage of allegations of antisemitism and an unpopular economic agenda that includes hiking taxes for high income-earners to up to 90 per cent.

Separately, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who is from Macron’s centrist bloc, has echoed Macron’s position and said he would seek “to guard against any government” that has extremists whether far-right RN and far-left LFI.

Attal, the caretaker prime minister, has acknowledged the ENS bloc had “narrowly escaped extinction” in the elections, as per AFP.

Attal said that he would “completely revise our methods and our organisation”.

Attal said he hoped to “contribute to the emergence of a majority concerning projects and ideas” in the future parliament.

NPF may not be able to name PM candidate this week

Even though the NPF said it would name the prime ministerial candidate this week, it has indicated that the naming may get delayed.

“I’d rather not set a deadline,” said LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard to TF1 channel.

Bompard further said that “more time may be needed for discussions”.

There are also indications that there is infighting in the bloc. Green party leader Marine Tondelier said the problem was that “everybody claims that they are the biggest group” which she said showed that vote size was perhaps not “the most important criterion” to name PM candidate, as per AFP.

A source from the Socialist party told the channel that LFI, the single-largest party, had put forward four names for the most, including extremist leader Melenchon. The channel said that he is unacceptable to all other parties of the bloc and is controversial even among LFI members.