France President Emannuel Macron appears to be back to square one to form a government. This comes in as Socialists and Greens will not participate in further talks with him to find a way out of the country’s political deadlock, their leaders said on Tuesday. The leaders also called on their supporters to hold peaceful protests instead.
Macron rejected a potential leftist government on Monday. He cited fears that it would immediately be removed from power by a majority of lawmakers from other camps. He then called another round of marathon talks with party leaders for Tuesday.
With a hung parliament, the three factions—left, Macron’s centrists, and the far right—are nearly equal. Each group has ruled out forming a coalition. Hence, the president seems to be back to where he began.
“This election is being stolen from us,” Green party chief Marine Tondelier told local radio.
“We’re not going to continue these sham consultations with a president who doesn’t listen anyway… and is obsessed with keeping control. He’s not looking for a solution, he’s trying to obstruct it,” Tondelier said.
Socialist party president Olivier Faure said he would not engage in what he called a “parody of democracy.”
The New Popular Front (NFP) won more votes than any other party in snap parliamentary elections this summer. NFP is an alliance of parties ranging from the moderate Socialists and Greens to the eurosceptic France Unbowed (LFI). Their votes led its leaders to assert their claim to form the next government.
Their hopes to govern, however, faded after weeks of infighting and haggling. NFP’s political rivals said they would oppose a leftist rule unless it cut ties with the LFI and its leader Jean-Luc Melenchon.
Macron is a pro-business centrist. He thinks that the balance of power lies more with the centre or centre right. However, any such alliance would also require driving a wedge through the left to win the backing from its more moderate factions, something leftist leaders have repeatedly ruled out.
“Their problem is not only France Unbowed (LFI), it’s the left,” Faure said. “They can’t accept a vote in which they don’t emerge as the winners.”
(With inputs from Reuters)
