Macron is set to choose a new prime minister after the government lost a no-confidence vote this week.
ADVERTISEMENTAfter a no-confidence vote toppled Michel Barnier’s government, French President Emmanuel Macron received several political parties on Friday in Paris to discuss forming a new government.
The Socialist Party, part of the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (NFP) seems to be open to the idea of working with other parties to attempt to break the current institutional deadlock.
“There’s a choice between making grand speeches and doing nothing,” said Olivier Faure, the Secretary General of the Socialist Party.
“We’re ready to take on our responsibilities, but not at any price or under any conditions. And we’re not going to get sucked into a right-wing government,” he told a group of reporters after the meeting with Macron.
The meeting angered other parties in the left-wing coalition, who fear the Socialists are ready to defect and ally with the centrists and the conservatives to form a majority in parliament.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the firebrand leader of the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI) hit out at the Socialist party leaders for accepting the meeting without including the other parties in the left-wing coalition.
“LFI (France Unbowed) has not given any mandate to Olivier Faure, to go alone to this meeting, nor to negotiate an agreement and make “concessions” with Macron and the right. Nothing he says or does is in our name or that of the NFP,” tweeted Mélenchon.
Responding to Mélenchon’s post, Faure said: “I’m speaking on behalf of the Socialists, in the interests of our country and to try to break the institutional deadlock.”
He reiterated that the party told Macron they would only accept a left-wing Prime minister and requested the French president meet with the other left-wing parties before making a decision.
On Friday evening, the French president will welcome the right-wing conservative party representatives.
Representatives from the far-right National Rally and hard-left France Unbowed were notably not invited to the Elysée Palace.
French President Macron promised on Thursday to nominate the future prime minister in the coming days.
