France’s Socialist and Greens parties will not participate in further talks with President Emmanuel Macron to agree on the country’s new prime minister, their leaders said on Tuesday.
“This election is being stolen from us,” Greens party chief Marine Tondelier told local radio.
“We’re not going to continue these sham consultations with a president who doesn’t listen anyway … and is obsessed with keeping control. He’s not looking for a solution, he’s trying to obstruct it,” Ms Tondelier said.
Party leaders called on their supporters to hold peaceful protests instead.
The announcement came after Mr Macron slammed the door on a potential leftist government on Monday, calling the proposition a “threat to institutional stability”.
He said it would be immediately removed from power by a majority of politicians from other camps, and called another round of marathon talks with party leaders for Tuesday.
The far-right National Rally (RN) has not been invited to Tuesday’s talks.
Socialist party president Olivier Faure told France 2 television he would not engage in what he called a “parody of democracy” now the prospect of a leftist-led government was off the table.
Why has France been left without a prime minister?
Mr Macron faces a hung parliament in which each of the three almost equal groupings — the left, the centrist bloc and the far right — have ruled out forming a coalition.
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The left is represented by the New Popular Front (NFP) — an alliance of parties ranging from the moderate Socialists and Greens to the Eurosceptic party, France Unbowed (LFI).
The NFP won more votes than any other party in snap parliamentary elections this summer, prompting its leaders to assert their claim to form the next government.
They chose Lucie Castets — a 37-year-old economist who belongs to the LFI party — as their candidate.
But the election was deemed inconclusive and a caretaker government was appointed. A new prime minister has still not been appointed, seven weeks later.
The NFP’s hopes to govern have faded following the weeks of infighting and haggling, in which political rivals made clear they would oppose any leftist government unless it cut ties with the LFI and its firebrand leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Mr Macron, a pro-business centrist, thinks the balance of power lies more with the centre or centre-right.
But any such alliance would also require driving a wedge through the left to win the backing from its more moderate factions, something leftist leaders have repeatedly ruled out.
“Their problem is not only France Unbowed [LFI], it’s the left,” Mr Faure said.
“They can’t accept a vote in which they don’t emerge as the winners.”
Socialist deputies would back a no-confidence motion against any government that was not put forward by the NFP, he said, accusing the president of seeking to “prolong Macronism” despite losing the election.
Ms Castets accused Macron of seeking to be “president, prime minister and party leader all at the same time”.
She said this was “not respectful of French voters or of democracy”.
Reuters/AFP
