Seven weeks ago, President Macron’s party was defeated at the parliamentary elections in France, losing over 90 seats (they were already running a minority government before the poll). But Macron has so far refused to nominate a left Prime Minister, despite the fact that the left alliance (New Popular Front) is the largest group of MPs in the National Assembly, with over 185 seats to Macron’s 160. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a leader of the France Insoumise (France in Revolt), has accused the president of being “an autocrat” who is “causing chaos”.
Macron declares war on the France Insoumise
Meanwhile, Macron has been trying to squeeze every last bit of political capital out of the success of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, subjecting athletes to embarassingly long hugs, while his cronies try to cobble together some kind of left-right coalition. The priority, say the anti-democratic Macronists, is to exclude “extremists of the Left and of the Right” – that is to say, the France Insoumise, the most radical of the four parties in the left alliance, and the fascist National Rally. So they are searching for a Prime Minister, preferably from some left party, who rejects the NPF’s radical programme and hates the France Insoumise. The traditional right Republicans are backing Macron up, by saying that they will immediately propose a vote of no confidence if the new government includes ministers from the France Insoumise, but not if there is a soft left alliance with Macron.
Macron has in effect declared war on the France Insoumise. After Rima Hassan, an FI Euro MP, published a pro-Palestinian tweet pointing out that even the United Nations did not treat the events of October 7th like they treat terrorist attacks, and that outside of the Western powers, almost noone dismisses Hamas as a terrorist organization, Macron organized 51 of his MPs to demand that Rima Hassan’s parliamentary immunity should be lifted and that she should be tried for supporting terrorism. He is hoping that this sort of fabricated “scandal” will split and weaken the New Popular Front. The right wing media will be trying, disgustingly, to claim there is a link between principled opposition to genocide in Gaza, and the horrific antisemitic attack on a synagogue in La Grande Motte in southern France this weekend.
In his speech at the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing in the South of France, Macron hit peak hypocrisy, declaring “We must not give into division”. This is the president who made everyone work two years longer, and slashed unemployment benefit, while abolishing the wealth tax, viciously repressing the yellow vests and demonizing Muslims.
Can Macron split the Left alliance?
Macron’s zombie government, who have officially resigned, are continuing their work against us. Darmanin, interior minister, is rabidly stoking islamophobia, because he knows the left fightback on this issue will be muted. A Muslim preacher from Pessac in the South West of France is threatened with deportation because he defends Palestine and because he has declared that France “is an Islamophobic country.” And a major mosque in Marseille is being threatened with closure by the police on trumped up charges.
Austerity continues too. The ex-Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has sent letters to the ministers of health, education and others, telling them they should cut hundreds of millions of Euros in real terms from their budgets over the next year. Even centre-right MPs like Charles de Courson are protesting that “it is not good for democracy” for a government which has in theory resigned after its election defeat to do this.
On August 23rd, Macron met with the heads of all political parties, promising to choose a Prime Minister shortly afterwards. He is hoping to be able to avoid following democratic procedure and naming Lucie Castets, a candidate who is loyal to the radical NPF manifesto, and upon whom the four left parties have agreed.
In this slowly developing but deep crisis, the four parties of the left alliance (France in Revolt, Socialists, Communists and Greens) are revealing their political differences, although none has yet broken ranks to form an alliance with Macron’s people. Faced with Macron’s refusal to appoint Lucie Castets, the France Insoumise has threatened to launch an impeachment procedure against him. This initiative was denounced by the Communist Party leadership, and Socialist and Green leaders distanced themselves from such a “disruptive” suggestion.
The mass media are running a frenzied campaign to present Macron’s choices as sensible and good for the country, although left leaders are regularly interviewed at length (if aggressively) on TV. Alternative media are playing an important rôle, especially for left activists and sympathizers: a 90 minute analysis of the present political situation by Jean-Luc Mélénchon got 400,000 views on YouTube, as did a recent television interview with Marine Tondelier, leader of the Green Party.
Preparing the fightback
The end of August is the traditional time for political summer schools in France. Over five thousand people are attending the four-day France Insoumise summer school in Valence ; 116 meetings will be involved. Major speakers include Lucie Castets, Olivier Besancenot of the New Anticapitalist Party, and Assa Traore, who has been an inspiring campaigner against police violence and racism since her brother was murdered by police in 2016. The Communist Party is holding its summer school over three days, with 66 meetings. Two thousand five hundred activists listened enthusiastically to Lucie Castets at the Greens’ summer school on 22 August, and several hundred people are gathering for four days on the South coast at the summer school of the New Anticapitalist Party. Everywhere activists are debating about the best strategy in a completely new institutional crisis, and an ever more polarized situation.
Macron’s attempt to split the left and persuade the centre left to ditch all radical policies has not yet worked. He may be obliged to allow the formation of a minority government by the New Popular Front. Such a government might have difficulty passing legislation (although there may well be a majority in the House for certain welcome measures such as reversing last year’s rise in the standard retirement age or establishing minimum agricultural prices to protect small farmers). But passing new laws is not the only thing governments do. A number of important clauses in the NPF programme could be carried out by a left government without a vote in parliament: for example dissolving the most racist police units, raising the minimum wage and minimum pension, raising public sector wages, freezing prices of basic foodstuffs, and recognizing the state of Palestine.
What happens in parliament in the next few months is important. Whatever government is formed will be a minority government and further elections cannot be held till next June. But mass mobilization will be key. We may need mass action to force Macron to name an NPF Prime Minister. We will certainly need mass action to support the enacting of the reforms in the programme when resistance from the rich and powerful turns out to be even more vicious than the radical left leadership thinks it will be. And if Macron takes his contempt for democracy further and hand picks his left-right alliance government, mass strikes and demonstrations will be needed to throw them out. And if no minority government can survive, we must demand that Macron resigns and that a new president is elected.
