French left vows to nominate prime minister by end of week

“It will not be easy, it will not be easy, it will not be comfortable. It will take some time,” acknowledged Marine Tondelier, leader of the Greens, one of the parties that make up the New Popular Front (NPF), the left-wing alliance that won the election but does not have a majority in Parliament.

Created in the rush before the elections to try to stop the far right, the NFP includes, in addition to the Greens, other parties with radically different ideas and proposals, such as the Socialist Party, the Communist Party and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s Unbowed France, on the far left.

Socialist leader Olivier Faure said the choice of prime minister should be by “consensus” but acknowledged the possibility of an internal vote if that was not possible.

Mélenchon’s party recalls that “republican tradition” dictates that it should be the largest party in the coalition that nominates a candidate. In this case, the candidate for the next prime minister will be La France Insubordinate, which will elect 74 deputies against 59 from the Socialists, 28 from the Ecologists and 9 from the Communists.

But coalition partners see Mélenchon as “too divisive” to lead a government, and several non-left-wing parties have rejected the possibility of working in parliament with an executive led by France Unbowed.

In addition to Mélenchon, Faure and Tondelier have also been named as possible candidates for the New Popular Front to lead the government, but the possibility of choosing a more coherent figure cannot be ruled out.

Faced with uncertainty on the left, President Emmanuel Macron on Monday asked Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to remain in office temporarily to ensure government stability until his successor is chosen.

THE FAR RIGHT ASSUME MISTAKES

Far-right candidate Jordan Bardella took “some responsibility” for the defeat and acknowledged “mistakes” in the selection of some candidates and in clarifying some of the party’s proposals, including a ban on people with dual nationality from certain positions.

LE PEN: “Victory is inevitable”

National Union leader Marine Le Pen thanked the 10 million voters who cast their ballots for the party and assured that victory was “inevitable.”

NEW CALEDONIAN SEPARATIST ELECTED

The overseas territory of New Caledonia has elected a pro-independence candidate to the French parliament for the first time.