Emmanuel Macron dismissed? The PS does not support the threat brandished by LFI
The leader of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure has dismissed the possibility of the PS supporting a procedure to impeach Emmanuel Macron, a threat brandished by La France Insoumise, saying on Sunday that he would prefer “censorship” if the president refused to appoint a Prime Minister from the left.
Published on 08/18/2024 at 1:55 p.m.
This new disagreement between the two main components of the New Popular Front, which continues to claim Matignon, cancels any chance of seeing this complex procedure succeed in Parliament.
In a column published in the weekly La Tribune Dimanche, the Insoumis had in fact threatened the President of the Republic to take this step if he “ignored” the result of the ballot boxes.
But this platform “only commits their movement” and not the whole of the New Popular Front, wrote Olivier Faure on X. “The response to the nomination of a (Prime Minister) who would not be in conformity with republican tradition is censorship,” he added.
The rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the head of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot and the coordinator of the movement Manuel Bompard had justified their initiative by denouncing an “institutional coup against democracy” attributed to Emmanuel Macron, on the verge, according to them, “of appointing a head of government without taking into account the political result” of the early legislative elections.
Even if it had been supported by the entire NFP, this “solemn warning” from the Insoumis would have been complex to put in place: a dismissal procedure requires convincing the Assembly and the Senate to constitute themselves as a “High Court”. This requires, in particular, a two-thirds majority in each hemicycle, then during the vote of all parliamentarians.
Other members of the PS have distanced themselves from LFI’s proposal, such as Olivier Faure’s internal opponent, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol. “Discussed? No. Approved? No. Engaging the NFP? No. This platform – neither done nor to be done – only engages its authors,” wrote the mayor of Rouen on X.
“Impeach the President for not respecting Mélenchon’s wishes? Lunar! LFI is once again pulling the left towards extremism and leaving the republican field,” reacted the resigning Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti.
Having come out on top in the second round of early legislative elections but far from an absolute majority in the Assembly, the left-wing coalition of the NFP is claiming Matignon and would like to install senior civil servant Lucie Castets there. The latter is due to accompany a delegation from the NFP to the Elysée on Friday during a day of consultations organised by Emmanuel Macron with all the leaders of the political forces in Parliament.
Questioned by La Tribune Dimanche, the leader of the Ecologists Marine Tondelier had for her part avoided the subject: “I dare not imagine that Emmanuel Macron would not appoint Lucie Castets,” she had dismissed.
