In spirit of letting 'democracy play out', is Macron 'obliged' to consider PM from NFP leftist bloc?

1 year ago

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00:00For more on the story, we can bring in Nicolas Starten. He's a professor in politics and

00:05international relations at John Cabot University in Rome. He joins us by phone. Nicolas, thanks

00:11so much for being with us. You have studied the rise of the far-right across Europe.

00:15We've seen a seemingly nonstop rise in the popularity of the far-right here in France.

00:20The only thing that's really kept them out of power has been this so-called Republican

00:23front that has often meant left-wing voters holding their noses to vote for centrists.

00:28What kind of trajectory do you think this current political impasse in France puts us on?

00:35Yeah, this is quite a difficult situation. I spoke to you on Friday, I spoke to your

00:38colleagues on Friday on France 24, and I was predicting that a prime minister would probably

00:45be announced on Tuesday. As it stands, it looks like a prime minister is not emerging from the

00:54shipwreck, if you like, of the legislative elections, where we have essentially the

01:00radical far-right bloc, the centre bloc, and the new popular front-left bloc. I think we're moving

01:07into the territories of a political crisis for President Macron. There are a whole bunch of

01:17candidates that he would like to endorse as prime minister. Xavier Bertrand, the

01:25leader of the Haute-de-France region in the north, former minister of Chirac, Michel Barnier,

01:31he would have liked to have perhaps nominated, former socialist prime minister Cazeneuve.

01:37But none of these would command a majority. And he's had meetings with the new popular front,

01:46and he's had meetings with the Rassemblement National leaders, Le Pen and Bardella,

01:53and we're in a situation, quite frankly, where the president is boxed in. He cannot get a majority

02:01from the centre. On one level, yes, we can talk about the rise of the radical right and the

02:06Rassemblement National, but they didn't do as well as anticipated in the second round of the

02:13parliamentary elections almost two months ago, and that's one of the reasons we are where we are.

02:21He's also rejected the president, Lucie Castaix, who was the nomination of the new popular front.

02:28So we're a little bit at loggerheads now to work out what the next phase, the next situation is.

02:36I guess there will be further discussion with leading operators in the political centre,

02:43but it looks like neither the radical right or the new popular front on the left are wanting to

02:50continue their discussions with the president. And in fact, we may see some kind of protest

02:55on the streets, which we know France is very famous for, both historically and in contemporary

03:02politics. So we're really at an impasse. Are we at the level of a crisis? I guess the next 24 hours,

03:1048 hours will tell us that. Macron is calling on the left NFP to sort of play ball with his

03:19centrist bloc to stop blocking, say, the progress of the country. But really,

03:26the centrists of Macron's bloc were the ones who came in behind the left bloc. Is it not more

03:32on their shoulders to play ball with the party that came in first, which would be the left-wing bloc?

03:40I argue that, you know, the centrist bloc, which is an alliance of numerous parties,

03:45including the president's party, came second behind the new popular front leftist bloc. Yes,

03:52they did beat the Rassemblement National radical right bloc. But as you say, you know,

03:59if we're going to look at democracy playing out, perhaps, you know, the president is obliged to

04:07think about a prime minister from that leftist bloc. I suspect he's worried that the Rassemblement

04:16National, the radical right, would not be in favour of that and there might be a kind of vote

04:22of no confidence. So at the moment, we really are in a situation where I don't see an immediate

04:30solution. Could there perhaps be further elections? I doubt that. That would be a very

04:36radical ending to this story. Let's see what develops over the next 24 hours.

04:44Let's see what the president comes up with to a solution that is becoming increasingly difficult

04:50and increasingly complicated for him to resolve. Indeed. Probably unlikely to call new elections,

04:57you'd think he might have learned his lessons from the last one. Nicolas Startin from John

05:01Cabot University in Rome. Thank you so much for that analysis, for being with us here on France24.

In spirit of letting 'democracy play out', is Macron 'obliged' to consider PM from NFP leftist bloc?

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