The Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) left-wing alliance had succeeded in rallying behind a single candidacy for the presidency of the Assemblée Nationale. But while this was no mean feat, it was not enough.
André Chassaigne, Communist MP since 2002, failed to be elected to the post on Thursday, July 18, after three rounds of voting. He called his defeat "a vote stolen by an unnatural alliance," referring to the agreement between the presidential camp and the conservatives of the Droite Républicaine (DR) group to propel Braun-Pivet to the post, in contrast to the result of the legislative elections, in which the NFP came out on top, but without a majority. "This result is a terrible signal for democracy," echoed Mathilde Panot, president of the La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) group in the Assemblée.
The vote formed the epilogue to the first decisive stage in the formation of the next government. Of the next left-wing government? According to Marine Tondelier, leader of the Greens, "the war" for the post of prime minister is not yet lost, and "resumes immediately".
But the NFP has so far been unable to propose a common candidate and a victory for the presidency of the Assemblée Nationale was an essential condition in Emmanuel Macron's eyes. Chassaigne's election would have been a tangible indication of the left's ability to govern by bringing people together. Conversely, in the event of defeat, the message – however subliminal – from the president was clear: no perchoir ("perch" − the name given to the desk behind which the president of the assembly sits) means no Matignon, the French prime minister's residence.
On Thursday morning on BFM-TV, Socialist leader Olivier Faure anticipated a possible setback, the consequence of "a form of hold-up," with the construction of an "everything but the left" front already taking shape. In order to keep some hope alive, he was careful to separate the vote for the leadership of the Assemblée from the appointment of the prime minister, and reminded viewers: "This is not the end of the NFP. Whatever happens, we claim victory [in the legislative elections]."
Is the NFP seeing its hopes for the post of prime minister slipping away? "No, it's not over," insisted Alexis Corbière, MP and formerly of LFI, now a member of the Greens group. Shortly after the vote, several NFP leaders announced they would be examining every possible legal recourse, notably before the Constitutional Council, to have the legality of the election examined. Seventeen ministers who had resigned but were still in charge of day-to-day matters took part in the vote, and just 13 votes separated Braun-Pivet's victory from Chassaigne's defeat. "Our determination is undiminished," affirmed Boris Vallaud, president of the Socialist group.
You have 39.43% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.