'Anti-democratic', 'arrogant': French left reacts to Macron's 'letter to the French'
Visit our website:
http://www.france24.com
Like us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/FRANCE24.English
Follow us on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/France24_en
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Anti-democratic. Arrogant. That's the reaction from the left to President Emmanuel Macron's
00:05post-election letter to French citizens in which he wrote that nobody won the legislative
00:11elections. A conclusion that's especially angered the leftist alliance, the New Popular
00:16Front, which got the biggest vote share but fell short of an overall majority. The leader
00:21of one member of the alliance, the hard left France Unbowed, said the president was refusing
00:25to recognise the results of the ballot box and called it the return of the royal veto
00:30over universal suffrage. In his letter Macron called for a government of what he called
00:36Republican forces, a designation understood to exclude France Unbowed. The Socialist Party
00:43sees it as an attempt to sow divisions in the left. I made the choice to unite the left.
00:49I made that choice when I became leader of the Socialist Party and I will not budge from
00:53it. Why? Because I know that those who seek to divide the left actually want to ensure
00:58the left will never govern. But there's no denying the left is struggling with internal
01:03disagreements. For now the New Popular Front still hasn't agreed on a prime ministerial
01:07nominee. The former leader of the National Assembly from Macron's party says she's casting
01:13a wide net. The issue is who can agree on what? I'm talking to the socialists, I'm talking
01:20to the Greens, I'm talking to the Republicans, I'm talking to the centrists. In the end it's
01:25Macron's call. The French constitution says only that the president nominates the prime
01:30minister. There's no specific qualification for the job. It's just by tradition that the
01:35nominee comes from the largest bloc. So in theory Macron could leave the left out of
01:40the equation altogether but a move like that would be open to challenge.