Macron was bailed out by cooperation from the left-wing, and now he wants to play fuckwad games. How predictable. I hope they ream his ass out for trying this.
I'm amazed that "chaos" there in France is more like "normal". I remember some riots that happened couple of years ago and one commenter said France might verge into collapsing. I thought to myself that those who think that are not aware how France works, and rioting is a tradition since the French Revolution.
riots may happen in france, but for what is mention in the post, there is absolutely no riot, no chaos or anything else. It's just a political event without consequence.
Literally every time I've been to France there has been a riot. Edit: actually that's not true, one of the times I was there it was only a riot watch, they were waiting for sentencing in some trial of righty separatists.
I know fuck all about French politics, but it seems strange that he doesn't just appoint the candidate from the left. It sounds like it's a fucked up non-functional situation, so he should just let them try to do the impossible and then fail. He's probably worried that she might actually succeed and is holding out hope for some way to cobble together something as close as possible to the centrist coalition that shit the bed in the first place.
Agreed. His excuse rings a little hollow. If there would be a no confidence vote, so be it. Give the left their PM, and if they get thrown out, then move forward with your compromise candidate.
but it seems strange that he doesn't just appoint the candidate from the left.
From which part of the left? The New Popular Front is actually an amalgamation of broad left wing coalition of various parties. So Macron had to pick from the far-left communist leader Jean Luc Melenchon, or from the centre left Socialist party led by Olivier Faure.
The French legislative assembly works very differently compared to US Congress or the parliamentary system. There isn't really one, or two, or only five parties getting votes. The French system is much more pluralistic and it is more like a hodge podge of various parties forming a grand coalition that represents an ideology. Even the current French president Emmanuel Macron's so-called "party", Ensemble, is a coalition of centrist parties.
I thought people credited Macron with the error and poor timing of the election. But credited the French voters with saving the election (against the far right and polling, quickly uniting with a practical strategy).
Hey! It's the part where the "centrists" betray the left and cede power to the facists! Damn. You'd think someone would write a new script or something.
AFAIK he's not talking to RN either, and if you look at actual parties and not groups then RN is the strongest party. It looks more like he's trying to break the NFP to get the support of some of the parties like social democrats or greens, because in such a coalition his party would be the strongest. In a coalition with RN his party wouldn't be the strongest and would have a hard time claiming the prime minister position.
The president had hoped consultations would break the political deadlock caused by the election that left the Assemblée Nationale divided into three roughly equal blocks – left, centre and far right – none of which has a majority of seats.
So, in parliamentary systems -- which, for these purposes, France is similar to -- typically this is dealt with via multiple factions making concessions to each other and forming a coalition. Is that an option?
France’s aversion to coalitions means any new government risks early collapse
In France, however, political leaders from left and right have lined up to rule out a coalition government after Sunday’s snap election produced a parliament of three roughly equal blocs – none with a majority, and all with wildly differing platforms.
So call a second election. The people will solve the impasse. Either a majority emerges or eventually the parties, exhausted by campaigning, will learn to compromise and make a coalition. Democracy will find a way.
As a Greek I have some familiarity. Our politics is just as adversarial (if not more) and there is no tradition of coalitions. But when push came to shove, they figured it out, if only for a bit.
The parties aren't the problem. Macron holds the presidency and appoints the PM. The largest (coalition) party is giving him a candidate AFTER compromises and he's refusing STILL because he only wants a PM from his own party, who came in second (edit: not third, my bad, they did beat National Rally. They did come in third in the first round of voting though).
The big debate is on whether he "appoints" the PM or "picks" the PM.
The constitution doesn't exactly specify which, and usage was that he would appoint the one issued from the majority vote (but there's no majority, there's just one group that's a wee bit larger). So he's having his fun, pretending to have a chat with everybody, while knowing all the time that they can really all fuck off and the he'll do as he pleases.
In the end he'll most likely have what they call a "technical" government made of non political ministers that will just do as they're told, because the chambers will be too busy infighting to do anything about it.
It sounds like the candidate PM would not have the confidence of the Assembly though because the center doesn't want to play ball with the left and the left doesn't have a majority.
That's why I'm suggesting elections. Keep going until either a majority is elected (in which case I assume the president is obligated to appoint its leader) or the parliamentary math changes.
If Macron and the center are serious about keeping the cordon sanitaire against the far right, they should obviously play ball with the left. The fact that they are not tells me that they are not serious. The left should be able to make that argument to the electorate and hope to convince a majority.
Edit: not only is Macron showing lack of seriousness in keeping the far right at bay, he is also undermining the legitimacy of the presidency by playing parliamentary shenanigans and triggering such a constitutional crisis. I never really understood the fundamentals of France's semi-presidential system, but in a parliamentary republic like Germany, or Ireland, or Greece for example, the president does not get to play politics with the parliament's confidence like this. I don't understand why the French think this is a good system.
I hate headlines like this. There is no "chaos". A bunch of politicians are arguing and having meetings. Bureaucracy chunters along as usual. Paralympics are happening.
If the politicians were having shootouts in the Champs Elysées and disrupting traffic then yes, a bit of chaos in Paris. But they're not. Sigh.
Oh, I didn't realize he was falsifying elections. You do have a reason for accusing Macron of that, right, and aren't just throwing around accusations to try to lessen the seriousness of Maduro's actions, right?
He's straight up ignoring the will of the people, so it's pretty much the same shit to me. A wanna be dictator throwing rocks in the wheels of democracy just because he doesn't like the election results. Same thing could be said about Macron.