Emmanuel Macron in search of a government of “general interest”

While the political crisis in France worsened after the overthrow of the government of Michel BarnierEmmanuel Macron promised the French on Thursday evening the appointment of a new government “in the coming days” (Monday at best, editor’s note)

In accordance with the French Constitution, it is the president of the republic who appoints his Prime Minister. But the new parliamentary situation, the result of the dissolution of the National Assembly last June, completely reshuffled the cards.

If from an institutional point of view Emmanuel Macron remains the only “master of clocks”the lack of a majority in the National Assembly forces it to seek a transpartisan consensus before appointing a new Prime Minister.

It is in this spirit that he summoned the country’s main political leaders to the Elysée this Friday, from the Socialist Party to the Republicans, including the party leaders of his former presidential majority.

A “republican arch” to which neither Jean-Luc Mélanchon’s La France Insoumise party nor Marine Le Pen’s National Rally was invited.

Emmanuel Macron indeed wishes to constitute a government of “general interest” excluding the parties of chaosas he called them Thursday evening.

But other parties were not invited to this round of discussion either: this is the case of the ecologists and the communists.

The president’s detractors see this as a Machiavellian calculation to try to explode the alliance of the New Popular Front (NFP), formed in view of last summer’s legislative elections, and of which the socialists are also involved.

But the president of the PS is not fooled: “We will go to the Elysée because we asked for it”recalled first secretary Olivier Faure on Thursday. “Those who think that the Socialist Party is for sale are wrong”he warned.

This Friday, Olivier Faure said he was ready to discuss the basis “reciprocal concessions” with a view to the formation of a new government which would have a “fixed-term contract”.

The Minister of the Interior resigns Bruno Retailleauassures that “the right will not be able to make any compromise with the left”.

For the rebels, if the socialists start to discuss with the macronists, it would be “a break with the commitments made to the voters”, warned LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard on BFMTV.

A barely veiled threat aimed at socialist deputies, many of whom were re-elected thanks to the support of LFI last July.

Most parties nevertheless agree: in these times of instability, the name of a future Prime Minister matters less than the project he will carry. And that’s the whole problem. Lacking a majority, several French political leaders are calling for a non-aggression pact which would allow a minority government to function without fear of a motion of censure at the first opportunity.

With a certainty recalled Thursday evening by Emmanuel Macron: the first priority of Michel Barnier’s successor will be to close the budgetwhose work was aborted due to censorship by the outgoing government.