On Monday evening, lightning-fast messages rained down: President Emmanuel Macron is instructing the recently resigned Prime Minister Sebastien Le Corneille to make one last effort to find a way out of the situation and to hold some “final negotiations“ in the next two days.
Mission impossible?
Le Corneille confirmed that he would take the chance and wrote on the X platform that he would inform the head of state about the result on Wednesday evening so that Macron could draw the appropriate conclusions. But how could Le Cornu now handle the task in two days, after he had been unable to do so for 27 days after his appointment?
Le Pen demands Macron's resignation
In political circles in Paris, almost no one believes in the success of the president's latest attempt to form a center-right government. And what conclusions could Macron draw after two more days of negotiations, which will most likely be unsuccessful, asks the German public broadcaster ARD rhetorically.
The leader of the far-right National Rally party and leader of the opposition in parliament, Marine Le Pen, sees two options for Macron: either the president resigns, or parliament is dissolved, followed by new elections. The latter could bring record results to her “National Assembly”: all surveys indicate that Le Pen's party will be the clear winner in new elections in France, but it will be very far from winning an absolute majority.
The French left does not want new elections
The most likely outcome of new elections would be that the three major blocs in the National Assembly - the right, the left and the center - will continue to paralyze each other. That is why representatives of the moderate left reject the option of new elections.
On Monday evening, the leader of the Socialists, Olivier Faure, said that he was in favor of a left-wing government: “Because in the meantime, three centrist governments have failed. Since yesterday, we have witnessed an incredible travesty. We need a new vision, we need to unite the country for a simple goal: more social and environmental justice," ARD quoted Faure as saying on TF1 television.
Is Macron's decline underway?
But instead of giving the left bloc a chance and entrusting it with forming a government, Macron prefers to buy time and throw Prime Minister Le Corneille, who is now only acting, into an additional round of political negotiations. With this step, Macron is even turning against himself old allies such as former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal. Like many other French people, he no longer understands the decisions of the president, who is clearly “trying hard to stay at the top.“
The president's decline has long begun. But Macron seems unwilling to admit that he has failed. The country urgently needs a new budget, and austerity and reform measures must be taken. But all this is at a standstill – and Macron is getting in the way.
Author: Julia Boruta (ARD)