The French left will choose a candidate for prime minister from within their victorious electoral coalition within the week, Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said on Monday, July 8. Faure's Socialists are one of the left-wing parties that make up the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP), the alliance that won the most seats – but no outright majority – in Sunday's parliamentary election. The other main parties are the Greens, Communists, and the radical La France Insoumise (LFI).
It is unclear who might be the alliance's top candidate to be prime minister. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who said before the elections that LFI should provide a prime minister as the largest party on the left, is a divisive figure even among some supporters of his own party.
Within Mélenchon's party, LFI lawmaker Clémentine Autain called on the NFP alliance to gather on Monday to decide on a suitable candidate for prime minister. The alliance, "in all its diversity," needed "to decide on a balance point to be able to govern," she said, adding neither former Socialist president François Hollande nor Mélenchon would do.
On Monday morning, Mathile Panot, a prominent LFI lawmaker close to Mélenchon, said the 72-year-old was "absolutely not disqualified" from the position of prime minister.
Marine Tondelier, the 37-year-old leader of the Greens, said it was too early to start suggesting the name of a prime minister. But "we will rule," she said. On Monday, she said the prime minister could be someone from any of the parties in the alliance, or someone "from beyond all of that," raising the possibility of a leader with no political background.
Macron made the gamble of calling the parliamentary polls three years early after the far right trounced his centrist allies in European elections.
Stéphane Séjourné, the secretary-general of Macron's Renaissance party who has been foreign minister, ruled out working with LFI. It is "obvious... Mélenchon and a certain number of his allies cannot govern France," he said. "The lawmakers from the centrist bloc will ensure this in parliament."