Macron is attempting to avoid a government led by the left, but continued mobilisation of the working class is the way forward, reports John Mullen

If you trust the mass media, you will have had the impression that French politics this month is mostly about a bunch of squabbling lefties and a patient, sensible President Macron trying to get them to see sense. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As the Olympic ceremony went out to a billion TV viewers across the world, Macron was winning no medals for respecting democracy. On the contrary, he has been showing, as the radical Left has been saying for years, that the relationship between himself and the neofascist leader Marine Le Pen is ‘more of a duet than a duel’.

He has refused to appoint a Prime Minister from the left alliance (The New Popular Front), which has the most seats in the National Assembly. At the same time, he has declared that it is a terrible thing that the far-right won none of the seats last week on the parliamentary House Affairs Committee. This committee deals, among other things, with parliamentary discipline, and it recently suspended a left MP who waved a Palestine flag in the House. It is a very good thing that it has no fascist members, and, indeed, now has a left majority.

Macron’s main priority is to avoid a government of the New Popular Front. He hopes instead for an (unlikely) coalition bringing together some of the Right and some of the Left around his own group. It would be very difficult for him to get a majority in that way, but this is his dream, and the reason he is refusing to follow normal procedure and appoint a Prime Minister belonging to the biggest group in parliament.

Last week, after sixteen days of negotiations, the four parties in the NPF agreed on a name to propose for PM. Contrary to what has been widely reported, this delay was caused by real differences in political perspectives between the four parties involved, and not by personality clashes or psychological weaknesses!

It was quickly understood that the name of Jean-Luc Mélenchon would not get a consensus in the left alliance. The Socialist Party tried hard to push one of their leaders, Olivier Faure. After some days, it became clear that to have a chance of agreement, a candidate who was neither a La France Insoumise leader nor a Socialist Party leader would be required. First, the Communist Party proposed Huguette Bello, president of the regional council of La Réunion, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean, who has often agreed with the FI, but who is not a member. The Greens and La France Insoumise agreed, but the Socialist Party refused this choice, seeing her as too close to La France Insoumise. The Socialists may also have disliked her opposition to Islamophobic laws passed twenty years ago and/or her rather late move to supporting gay-marriage laws.

The Socialist Party then proposed Laurence Tubiana, a top economist. La France Insoumise angrily rejected her, because she had recently signed a document saying the Left should make a government coalition with Macron, and also had actually been considered by Macron himself as a potential Prime Minister a few years back.

Finally, on the 23 July, there was agreement of the whole left alliance on the name of Lucie Castets. She is a high-up civil servant, who, a few years ago, formed an organisation to defend public services. She campaigned against the raising of the retirement age last year and has declared that a coalition with Macron is impossible because his ideas are incompatible with the NPF programme.

So, on the key points: apply the Left programme and do not make a coalition with Macron. She is a good candidate, and she is combative.

No truce!

Macron has insisted he feels that a ‘political truce’ is necessary until the end of the Olympic Games. Until at least mid-August, he plans not to appoint a new Prime Minister, even though he lost the elections three weeks ago!

Meanwhile, some of our new radical Left MPs are making a splash. Thomas Portes was reported around the world after he pointed out that Israeli athletes were not welcome in Paris. He was widely accused in the media of anti-Semitism and of encouraging terrorism. However, the crowds at an opening Olympic football match between Mali and Israel, and spectators at the Opening Ceremony seemed to back his position: the Israeli team was roundly booed.

The Communist Party, who for years now has been trying to carve itself out a political space to the right of La France Insoumise, promptly denounced Portes and declared that Israeli athletes were welcome.  Macron invited Netanyahu for the opening ceremony in a spectacular bid to rehabilitate genocide, despite claiming to have important disagreements with the Israeli government. 

Meanwhile the president has hosted a lavish dinner with bosses from forty major international companies, including Airbnb, Samsung, Coca-Cola and LVMH, desperate to reassure them that he does actually know what he is doing.

Two things have boosted Macron a little this week. First the Olympic Opening Ceremony, claiming to show the world the great universal values of France. Even if Macron was loudly booed by spectators, such impressive shows of national pride do tend to comfort the powers that be for a couple of weeks. Secondly, coordinated large-scale sabotage of the country’s railway networks on the day of the opening ceremony helps the president, because such acts can be used to justify an increasingly repressive society and an atmosphere of national unity against terrorism. No-one has claimed responsibility for the sabotage, but if it was a political intervention, it was one that weakens our side in the class struggle. We need mass struggle, not blockading workers leaving on holiday.

The situation is not immediately explosive, but we are entering a long and deep crisis. The French Constitution does not allow repeat legislative elections for twelve months, but all three blocs in the National Assembly (the Left alliance, Macron’s group and the far right) are several dozen seats short of a parliamentary majority. Whether Macron does his democratic duty and names Lucie Castets Prime Minister or not, upheaval is assured, and the organised mobilisation of the working class will be the key to a way forward.

John Mullen is a revolutionary and a France Insoumise activist in the Paris region. His website is randombolshevik.org