Who would become France's prime minister if the left came out on top in the upcoming parliamentary elections? The left-wing parties, who had previously selected radical left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon as the figurehead of the New Popular, Ecological and Social Union (NUPES) campaign in 2022, have now decided, while urgently negotiating the parameters of the newly formed Nouveau Front Populaire alliance – which has brought together the Socialists, the Greens, the radical left La France Insoumise (LFI) and the Communists – to put this thorny question off until a later date. However, the question keeps coming up, and there is a new batch of ambitious hopefuls every day.
The Socialist mayor of the northern city of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, spelled out his party's list: "There's Valérie [Rabault, a former MP], Carole [Delga, the president of the southern French Occitanie region], me, Boris [Vallaud, the former head of the Socialist group of MPs]," seizing the opportunity to slip his name into the list of contenders. Before him, Mélenchon, former LFI MP François Ruffin and Communist leader Fabien Roussel had already said that they were ready to take on the mantle of prime minister.
So, how to choose who should take the premiership? On Tuesday, June 18, Socialist leader Olivier Faure and LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard clashed on the subject via media statements. "There will be a vote because I don't know any other way of arbitrating," Faure told French news channel BFM-TV. He added: "I can't impose a Socialist prime minister. Nobody can impose an LFI prime minister."
Also on BFM-TV, Bompard, Mélenchon's right-hand man, replied a few hours later. For him, it is up to the group "with the largest number of MPs" to make "a proposal for a candidate for the position of prime minister." In other words, it would be up to LFI, which had 75 of the around 150 left-wing MPs in the Assemblée Nationale before its dissolution.
'This time, LFI is in the minority'
"Olivier Faure himself proposed this method, which I agree with," added Bompard, who was keen to keep the prerogative of presenting a candidate, which clearly belonged to his party in 2022. "Rather than inventing a new primary and going back on your own word, concentrate on ensuring that the Nouveau Front Populaire wins," former LFI lawmaker Paul Vannier wrote to Faure, on X. "People vote Front Populaire, not LFI, which doesn't have an absolute majority in the coalition," contested Luc Broussy, one of Faure's close associates.
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