Tensions rise among French left parties trying to forge deal for snap elections

3 months ago 16

France’s main left-wing parties are due to present on Thursday (June 13) a joint programme for the snap elections but negotiations have stumbled over issues like the number and names of candidates and the war in Gaza.

After President Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly on Sunday (June 10), France’s main left-wing forces decided to join forces in a broad alliance named Front populaire for the two-round legislative elections that will take part on 30 June and 7 July.

Thus, the Parti socialiste (PS), la France insoumise (LFI), the Parti Communiste français (PCF), and the Greens (EELV) have announced they will work on a common programme to be announced on Thursday. The program was expected to be presented around 6pm, a source close to the talks told Euractiv.

But negotiations are not proceeding smoothly. “Debates are a little tense,” Communist leader Fabien Roussel admitted early this afternoon at a press conference.

Socialist party spokeswoman Chloé Ridel confirmed to L’Opinion that the agreement was on the verge of implosion, warning that “without a union, we’re going nowhere, and without a rebalanced union neither”.

Tensions rose over the distribution of constituencies, the war in Gaza, and the candidacy of LFI MP Adrien Quatennens, convicted of domestic violence.

According to agreements in principle, there would be 229 constituencies for LFI, 175 for the PS, 92 for the Greens and 50 for the PCF. But political leaders are squabbling over which constituency will go to which party.

One unnamed socialist official explained to Libération that the talks are stalling primarily because of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s LFI, accusing them of power grab.

“It’s blocked because LFI do not have a logic of victory. They don’t want to give us the constituencies in which [Socialist Raphaël] Glucksmann is in the lead, because their objective is not the collective success of the Front populaire but to have the biggest group so that Mélenchon can be prime minister.”

In the coming days, the Front populaire will also have to agree on its joint candidate for the future prime minister, which might be the biggest stumbling block.

Communist Roussel, LFI’s MP François Ruffin and LFI’s leader Mélenchon have already said they feel able to take over the helm of the new government.

The war in Gaza has also stoked tensions as LFI called the situation “genocide” against Palestinians, while the PS strongly refuses to do the same.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]