In spirit of letting 'democracy play out', is Macron 'obliged' to consider PM from NFP leftist bloc?
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00:00For more on the story, we can bring in Nicolas Starten. He's a professor in politics and
00:05international relations at John Cabot University in Rome. He joins us by phone. Nicolas, thanks
00:11so much for being with us. You have studied the rise of the far-right across Europe.
00:15We've seen a seemingly nonstop rise in the popularity of the far-right here in France.
00:20The only thing that's really kept them out of power has been this so-called Republican
00:23front that has often meant left-wing voters holding their noses to vote for centrists.
00:28What kind of trajectory do you think this current political impasse in France puts us on?
00:35Yeah, this is quite a difficult situation. I spoke to you on Friday, I spoke to your
00:38colleagues on Friday on France 24, and I was predicting that a prime minister would probably
00:45be announced on Tuesday. As it stands, it looks like a prime minister is not emerging from the
00:54shipwreck, if you like, of the legislative elections, where we have essentially the
01:00radical far-right bloc, the centre bloc, and the new popular front-left bloc. I think we're moving
01:07into the territories of a political crisis for President Macron. There are a whole bunch of
01:17candidates that he would like to endorse as prime minister. Xavier Bertrand, the
01:25leader of the Haute-de-France region in the north, former minister of Chirac, Michel Barnier,
01:31he would have liked to have perhaps nominated, former socialist prime minister Cazeneuve.
01:37But none of these would command a majority. And he's had meetings with the new popular front,
01:46and he's had meetings with the Rassemblement National leaders, Le Pen and Bardella,
01:53and we're in a situation, quite frankly, where the president is boxed in. He cannot get a majority
02:01from the centre. On one level, yes, we can talk about the rise of the radical right and the
02:06Rassemblement National, but they didn't do as well as anticipated in the second round of the
02:13parliamentary elections almost two months ago, and that's one of the reasons we are where we are.
02:21He's also rejected the president, Lucie Castaix, who was the nomination of the new popular front.
02:28So we're a little bit at loggerheads now to work out what the next phase, the next situation is.
02:36I guess there will be further discussion with leading operators in the political centre,
02:43but it looks like neither the radical right or the new popular front on the left are wanting to
02:50continue their discussions with the president. And in fact, we may see some kind of protest
02:55on the streets, which we know France is very famous for, both historically and in contemporary
03:02politics. So we're really at an impasse. Are we at the level of a crisis? I guess the next 24 hours,
03:1048 hours will tell us that. Macron is calling on the left NFP to sort of play ball with his
03:19centrist bloc to stop blocking, say, the progress of the country. But really,
03:26the centrists of Macron's bloc were the ones who came in behind the left bloc. Is it not more
03:32on their shoulders to play ball with the party that came in first, which would be the left-wing bloc?
03:40I argue that, you know, the centrist bloc, which is an alliance of numerous parties,
03:45including the president's party, came second behind the new popular front leftist bloc. Yes,
03:52they did beat the Rassemblement National radical right bloc. But as you say, you know,
03:59if we're going to look at democracy playing out, perhaps, you know, the president is obliged to
04:07think about a prime minister from that leftist bloc. I suspect he's worried that the Rassemblement
04:16National, the radical right, would not be in favour of that and there might be a kind of vote
04:22of no confidence. So at the moment, we really are in a situation where I don't see an immediate
04:30solution. Could there perhaps be further elections? I doubt that. That would be a very
04:36radical ending to this story. Let's see what develops over the next 24 hours.
04:44Let's see what the president comes up with to a solution that is becoming increasingly difficult
04:50and increasingly complicated for him to resolve. Indeed. Probably unlikely to call new elections,
04:57you'd think he might have learned his lessons from the last one. Nicolas Startin from John
05:01Cabot University in Rome. Thank you so much for that analysis, for being with us here on France24.