Le Pen blames Macron for French government gridlock

[July 10, 2024]  By Benoit Van Overstraeten and Zhifan Liu

PARIS (Reuters) -France's left-wing alliance and President Emmanuel Macron's centrist bloc battled to put together rival bids to form a government, as far-right leader Marine Le Pen said on Wednesday that blame for the political impasse lay squarely with Macron.

The unexpected outcome of Sunday's snap election, in which the leftist New Popular Front (NFP) benefited from a surprise surge but no group won an absolute majority, has plunged France into uncertainty, with no obvious path to a stable government.

To further complicate things, leaders within each camp disagreed on who to reach out to in order to try to cobble together a deal. Internal tensions within parties also grew as members jostled for influence in rebuilding a political landscape blown apart by the snap ballot.

And any government - of the left, centre, or a broader coalition - could quickly fall victim to a confidence vote from the opposition if it has not secured sufficient solid support.

"Today, we find ourselves in a quagmire since no one is able to know from what rank the prime minister will come, or what policy will be pursued for the country," far-right leader Marine Le Pen told reporters as she arrived in parliament.

Le Pen condemned pre-election deals she said kept her National Rally (RN) party from power.

Macron, whose term ends in 2027, called the parliamentary ballot after his party was trounced by the far right in EU elections last month, had said it would clarify the landscape - which has not happened.

"To say the least, this is not a great success for Emmanuel Macron," Le Pen quipped.

Amid warnings from rating agencies, financial markets, the European Commission and France's euro zone partners are all watching closely to see whether the impasse can be broken.

ALTERNATIVES

It would be customary for Macron to call on the biggest parliamentary group to form a government, but nothing in the constitution obliges him to do so.

Marine Le Pen, French far-right leader and member of Parliament, poses for a family photo with newly-elected lawmakers of the French far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally - RN) party, as they arrive at the National Assembly in Paris after the second round of the early French parliamentary elections, in Paris, France July 10, 2024. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

Options include a broad coalition and a minority government, which would pass laws in parliament on a case by case basis, with ad hoc agreements.

Phones are ringing constantly, political sources have told Reuters, with some centrists now hoping they can reach a deal with the conservative The Republicans and edge the left out.

"I think there is an alternative to the New Popular Front," Aurore Berge, a senior lawmaker from Macron's Renaissance group told France 2 TV. "I think the French don't want the NFP's platform to be implemented, I think they don't want tax increases."

"We are the only ones who can extend (our base)," she said.

Meanwhile, leftist leaders also took to the airwaves to stress that, having topped the election, they should run the government. But without a deal yet on who could be prime minister, they now face growing competition from the right and centre.

Carole Delga, from the Socialist Party, stressed that the left on its own cannot govern, and must extend its hand to others - but on the basis of the NFP's tax-and-spend programme.

But others took a harder line.

"The NFP has the greatest number of deputies in the National Assembly, it is therefore up to the NFP to constitute a government ... this is what we are working towards," Manuel Bompard, from France Unbowed, told LCI TV.

(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Ingrid Melander, Zhifan Liu, Blandine Henault; Writing by Ingrid MelanderEditing by Keith Weir)

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