‘Coup’: French President rules out left-wing government amid bitter deadlock

A major European nation is on the brink of chaos amid calls for mass protests, with its leader accused of an “anti-democratic coup”.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday ruled out naming a left-wing government to end the country’s political deadlock, saying it would be a threat to “institutional stability”.

While Mr Macron said he would start new talks on Tuesday to find a prime minister, left-wing parties reacted with fury to his announcement, calling for street protests and the impeachment of the President.

Mr Macron has held protracted talks on a new government since elections in July gave a left-wing alliance the most seats in parliament but not enough to govern.

The President rejected left-wing claims to govern after negotiations on Monday with far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen and other political leaders.

President Emmanuel Macron, left, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. Picture: Teresa Suarez/AFP

While some reports said Mr Macron had wanted to name a prime minister on Tuesday, the President instead said he would embark on a new round of negotiations.

“My responsibility is that the country is not blocked nor weakened,” Mr Macron said in a statement, calling on “all political leaders to rise to the occasion by demonstrating a spirit of responsibility”.

The July election left the 577-seat National Assembly divided between the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance with over 190 seats, followed by Mr Macron’s centrist alliance at around 160 and Le Pen’s National Rally at 140.

French riot police run past a fire during a demonstration in Paris on March 23, 2023, over controversial pension reforms. Picture: Alain Jocard/AFP

‘Stability’ threatened

The NFP, particularly the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), has demanded the right to form a government but centrist and right-wing parties have vowed to vote it down in any confidence vote.

A purely left-wing government “would be immediately censored by all the other groups represented in the National Assembly” and “the institutional stability of our country therefor requires us not to choose this option”, Mr Macron said.

Mr Macron said he would talk with party leaders and “personalities distinguished by experience in the service of the state and the Republic”.

Without naming the LFI, the president called on socialists, ecologists and communists in the leftist alliance to “co-operate with other political forces”.

Leftist parties are pushing for Lucie Castets to be named PM. Picture: Pascal Guyot/AFP

A source close to Mr Macron later confirmed that he would not hold further talks with the LFI or the National Rally, nor with Eric Ciotti, leader of the right-wing Republicans (LR), who had allied himself with Ms Le Pen’s far-right party for the snap vote.

The LFI reacted with fury, with its national co-ordinator Manuel Bompard called Mr Macron’s comments an “unacceptable anti-democratic coup”.

LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon called for a “firm and strong response” by the public and politicians including a “motion of impeachment” against the President.

Communist party leader Fabien Roussel called for a “grand popular mobilisation” and rejected new talks. Green party leader Marine Tondelier said “the people must get rid of Macron for the good of democracy”.

“He is chaos and instability,” she said.

Green party leader Marine Tondelier, left. Picture: Guillaume Souvant/AFP

Mr Macron has left Prime Minister Gabriel Attal as caretaker government leader for a post-war record time since the July election as he seeks a figure with enough broad support to survive a confidence vote.

The pressure is on, however, as the deadline to present a draft 2025 budget for the heavily indebted government is just over a month away.

Leftist parties had pushed for Mr Macron to name 37-year-old economist and civil servant Lucie Castets as prime minister.

Far-right party leader Marine Le Pen. Picture: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP

Mr Melenchon even said there could be a left-wing government without ministers from his party, but this has still been opposed by Mr Macron and centre-right parties.

The President has repeatedly called LFI an “extreme” movement, branding the party as equally zealot as Ms Le Pen’s.

Since Mr Melenchon’s offer, centre-right parties have focused attention on the NFP’s big-spending manifesto at a time when France is battling a record budget deficit and a debt mountain.

Mr Attal reaffirmed the opposition to the LFI in a letter to deputies that called Mr Melenchon’s offer an “attempted coup”, saying it would be “inevitable” that an NFP government would lose a vote of confidence.

Update: it's now official, in a just-released communiqué Macron has rejected a government led by the New Popular Front (NPF).

It's an unprecedented situation in the history of the 5th French Republic: the loser in the election effectively rejects yielding power to the winner.… https://t.co/MP39ccYbpfpic.twitter.com/Tj8yvkD0Rr

— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) August 26, 2024

Tech entrepreneur and political commentator Arnaud Bertrand said Mr Macron’s “incredible” move “might reveal that we’re in fact witnessing nothing less than a coup”.

“It’s an unprecedented situation in the history of the 5th French Republic — the loser in the election effectively rejects yielding power to the winner,” he wrote on X.

“Macron’s party got way less votes and MPs than the NPF, yet it is Macron’s party that’s still running the French government, and it is Macron himself making choices on who can or cannot assume power based on what he thinks would ‘weaken France’ or not. It’s insane when you think about it.”