It is bedlam in France. Nine days after the parliamentary elections that plunged the country into chaos, the political class continue to argue among themselves.
The left-wing coalition, which won the most seats in the election, can’t agree on who should be prime minister. Meanwhile, Emmanuel Macron’s centrist party, Renaissance, have announced that they won’t work with any MP from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally or Jean-Luc Melenchon’s La France Insoumise.
A soldier on patrol at the Gare de l’Est in Paris was wounded by a knifeman, just days before the start of the Paris Olympics
The leader of Renaissance in the National Assembly is Macron’s Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, the man who told the French on the evening of the election result: ‘I respect each and every one of you.’ Really? Snubbing two of the biggest political parties in France is not only disrespectful to their 200 elected members of parliament, it is also petty, divisive and dangerous
The National Rally is, in general, the party of the provinces, and La France Insoumise has a strong following among the urban working-class, particularly those of an immigrant background. Attal’s message, clearly endorsed by his president, suggests that they recognise only respectable bourgeois parties that have a touch of centrism about them: the Socialists, the Republicans and the Greens.
The leader of the Socialists, Olivier Faure, said on Monday that he hopes a prime minister may be nominated by the end of this week. A list has been drawn up, but the names at the top aren’t interested. Among those who have ruled themselves out are Huguette Bello and Martine Aubry, the latter the mayor of Lille.
The latest person to be linked to the job is the left-wing economist Laurence Tubiana, a member of the Communist revolutionary league in her youth and an advocate of Net Zero. Her appointment would likely be regarded by France’s agricultural industry as provocative; last week they warned that there would be a response if the left-wing coalition attempted to impose its climate change ‘dogma’ on the country.
It is likely that France is entering a period of institutional instability similar to the twelve years of the Fourth Republic, which ran from 1946 to 1958. The Republic worked its way through twenty-four governments in that time.
Frankly, who would want to be prime minister of such a dysfunctional country, presided over by a man who is despised by most of his people?
The problems facing France are numerous, and there was a reminder on Monday evening of one of the most serious issues – insecurity. A soldier on patrol at the Gare de l’Est in Paris was wounded by a knifeman, just a week and a half before the start of the Paris Olympics.
Neither Olivier Faure or Gabriel Attal responded to the news on X/Twitter, although there was a message of support for the wounded soldier from Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally.
He and his party have rather slipped out of the spotlight in the last week, although according to a report in Le Monde the National Rally is engaged in a ‘discreet purge’ of members considered unsuitable. These include people who are ‘xenophobic, racist or anti-Semitic’.
There were a handful of candidates who stood for election who were unsuitable, people Bardella described as ‘black sheep’. These included a woman who allegedly took someone hostage at gunpoint. Le Monde said that the National Rally was carrying out its purge in the wake of their ‘electoral failure’, a curious choice of words for the party that won the biggest share of the vote and has more seats in parliament than any other single party.
The failure of the National Rally was its inexperience; a minority of its candidates lacked gravitas and had questionable backgrounds. Bardella’s youth may also have been a factor for older voters; ‘Do I really want a 28-year-old as prime minister?’ was a question many pondered in the days before the second round. No, was their answer.
On reflection, Bardella and Marine Le Pen are probably relieved they weren’t landed the responsibility of forming a government. One might say that the lunatics have taken over the Assembly and the coming months and years will be mayhem. The parties likely to prosper in the long run are those who are not implicated in the bedlam.
