France’s Socialists have approved a left-wing coalition against re-elected Liberal President Emmanuel Macron for June’s general election. The former People’s Party will compete together with the Left, Greens and Communists, as its chairman Olivier Faure announced on Friday night after a vote in the party council near Paris. Previously, there had been difficult negotiations with the left-wing party LFI, which came third in the presidential election with Jean-Luc Mélenchon and is currently the largest force on the left.
The merger of the fragmented left camp is historic and could be dangerous for Macron. Because he needs a majority in the National Assembly to implement his plans. Even if he currently has a solid majority together with other center parties and the elected president has always won the majority in parliament since 2002, Macron’s frustration and disappointment over his first term in office are likely to cost him votes. The left-wing camp hopes to gain a majority themselves with their alliance Nouvelle Union Populaire Écologique et Sociale (NUPES).
Majority voting requires mergers
The merger is important because small parties have little chance of winning constituencies simply because of the majority voting system. Should the alliance win the parliamentary majority, Macron would effectively be forced to appoint a prime minister from among their ranks. According to the agreements made between the left-wing parties, this should then be Mélenchon.
The agreement was controversial among the socialists. They had a historically poor result in the presidential election. Unlike earlier alliances of left-wing parties, they are now not playing the leading role and have had to make some concessions to the Mélenchon party, LFI, which is much further to the left. The agreement with them said, for example, that you could violate certain rules in the European Union in order to implement your policy.
Macron party will be called “Renaissance” in the future
Meanwhile, Macron’s party has given itself a new coat of paint: it will be called Renaissance in the future. This was announced by the chairman of the party previously known as La République en Marche (LREM), Stanislas Guerini. It is about renewing and expanding the party. The party already used the name Renaissance, i.e. rebirth, for its list in the 2019 European elections. Macron founded LREM in 2016.
Macron’s party also announced that it would contest the general elections in June with other center parties such as MoDem and Horizons as an “Ensemble” alliance.