France’s far-left leaders have warned they will condemn President Emmanuel Macron for an “institutional coup against democracy” over his refusal so far to nominate a leftist as the next prime minister.
Now that the “Olympic truce” has ended, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Mathilde Pannot, former and current leaders of the far-left French party Insubordinate France (LFI), have warned that they will start procedures to “remove” President Macron for refusing to “take into account” the parliamentary elections in July.
Macron aligned himself with the left-leaning New Popular Front coalition, which includes the far-left LFI, in a last-minute, desperate attempt to thwart Marine Le Pen’s burgeoning right-wing populist Rally National (RN) party during the election. Macron’s neoliberals and leftists strategically shelved their candidates to back those most likely to beat the RN in the second round of voting last month.
The measure succeeded in preventing populist parties from winning a majority, despite the RN receiving more votes than any other party, but after the election Macron quickly shunned the idea of nominating a prime ministerial candidate from the far left, for fear of splitting his centrist support base.
With no consensus candidate, France has been without a real government for the past month, with Prime Minister Gabriel Atal in a caretaker role with no power to pass legislation and only the power to deal with emergencies.
While the Olympics were held in Paris, the various factions largely laid down their arms, but once the Games ended, the fighting for control of the House of Matignon began again.
‘League of Dishonor’: Macron backs far-left to thwart rise of right-wing https://t.co/90Ep1aHzlY
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 2, 2024
write of La Tribune Dimanche“Mr Macron should know that all constitutional means will be used to remove him,” former presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon and LFI president Mathilde Pano said on Sunday.
“In the present case, it is clear that the decision not to take into account the legislative elections and to ignore them is a reprehensible violation of a fundamental requirement of the presidential mandate, since the head of state seeks to be the guarantor of democracy in France and respect for its institutional rules,” they said.
Left-wing leaders called on Macron to appoint the New Popular Front’s candidate for prime minister, unelected socialist economist and civil servant Lucy Castets.
“If he does not, he should know that all constitutional means will be used to remove him, rather than subjecting us to his evil blows against the fundamental rules of democracy. In France, the only sovereign is the referendum!” they said, but the populist National Rally won more votes than the Left Coalition.
The LFI has the power to file a motion to begin impeachment proceedings, but even other members of the New Popular Front bloc have criticized the tactic and it is unclear whether it will have enough support to move forward.
Indeed, Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist Party and member of the NFP, said He said on Sunday that the move to impeach Macron over the appointment of another prime ministerial candidate “does not follow republican traditions” and that the letter only “commits” LFI members to the cause of impeaching the president.
‘When a police officer dies, Le Pen loses votes’: Violent far-left rhetoric abounds as French elections loom https://t.co/M4e8viOLNO
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 29, 2024
