The French president is trying to limit the far-right National Rally’s influence and find a way forward with the center left, but a path ahead remains elusive.
Several representatives told POLITICO that they believe a compromise such as Macron appointing a prime minister from his ranks who vowed not to use 49.3 could win over the center left. | Stephane de Sakutin/AFP via Getty Images
December 11, 2024 3:29 pm CET
PARIS — Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.
Emmanuel Macron told leaders from across the political spectrum he will not appoint a new prime minister whose survival depends on the far-right National Rally after it spurned Michel Barnier and voted to bring down his government after just three months, according to the French president’s office.
Toppling Barnier, Macron told his ministers on Wednesday, “was a serious choice, a choice that will have consequences,” government spokesperson Maud Bregeon told reporters.
Macron is expected to name a new premier by the end of the day Thursday to replace Barnier. Several names have been floated in the French press, but the leading rumor suggests he may appoint one of his earliest supporters, centrist François Bayrou. However, representatives from different left-wing parties have already made clear that they are against Bayrou’s potential appointment.
To avoid having Bayrou or whoever becomes the next prime minister toppled within 90 days, Macron on Tuesday hosted all political forces represented in parliament at the Elysée except for the National Rally and the left-wing France Unbowed — which has vowed to try to take down any government not led by the left — to discuss a path forward.
The meeting produced two key points of agreement: that a government should not rely on Le Pen, and that there would be no German-style broad government coalition including opposing parties.
The first option would be effectively repeating the mistake that doomed Barnier’s minority government and required it to rely on tacit support from Le Pen’s troops. The National Rally enjoyed an unprecedented level of power and influence under the arrangement, but it fell out with Barnier amid a dispute over budget cuts and tax raises aimed at bringing down France’s massive deficit.
Tuesday’s meeting, however, did not provide a clear path out of the deadlock. Leftist parties remain adamant that the next prime minister should come from their ranks after they banded together to come in first place during the summer’s snap election, even if they fell short of an absolute majority.
Macron has resisted naming a prime minister from the left and appears unlikely to do so. In an effort to reach a compromise, the Greens and Socialists have publicly pledged that their minority government would not use Article 49.3, a constitutional mechanism which allows the government to push through legislation without a vote but in turn allows lawmakers to put forward no-confidence motions.
Barnier’s government was ousted after trying to use 49.3 to pass a slimmed-down social security budget for 2025.
What it’ll take
Several representatives at Tuesday’s Elysée meeting told POLITICO that they believe a compromise such as Macron appointing a prime minister from his ranks who vowed not to use 49.3 could win over the center left.
Socialist leader Olivier Faure avoided directly addressing this possibility in a Wednesday interview with BFMTV. Instead, he reiterated that a left-led government would refrain from using 49.3 and called in turn on the opposition to act “responsibly” by not forcing its collapse.
Somewhat surprisingly, Macron also told party heads that he hopes not to call for new legislative elections before the scheduled end of his presidential term in 2027 and will try to find a path on which the fractured legislature can at least agree on a method to avoid having prime ministers removed every few months.
Although Macron cannot call for new elections before summer 2025, it was widely expected that he might do so then to break the deadlock within the legislature.
Sarah Paillou contributed to this report.
