Folie à Gauche: How Macron Tricked the French Left

The French left doesn’t have some magical mandate to force concessions onto the centrists and the right.

It’s a day ending in y, which means the French are about to have another revolution. 

The impetus is a failure to select a prime minister following a contentious election marked by backroom dealings and calculated voting. The aftermath of that election saw the French National Assembly split between a coalition of left-wing parties led by actual communist Jean-Luc Mélonchon, President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance, and Marine Le Pen’s right-wing Rassemblement National party. 

While Mélonchon’s New Popular Front coalition has a small majority of over 190 seats, it’s still not enough to govern without a partner. Thus, the only option is for Renaissance to enter into an alliance with the NFP to create a government. 

However, Macron has refused to do so, citing the prospect of a threat to “institutional stability”. 

In a statement released from the Elysée Palace on Monday, Macron wrote that a left-wing government "would be immediately censored by all the other groups represented in the National Assembly" and that "the institutional stability of our country therefore requires us not to choose this option.”

He added “my responsibility is that the country is not blocked nor weakened” during the ensuing power squabble. 

To that end, Macron has snubbed Mélonchon’s France Insoumise party, preferring instead to negotiate with the minority Socialists, Communists, and Greens parties to try and form a government. 

Shockingly, this has not gone over well with the French left. Mélonchon took to Twitter to rail against the President, tweeting “the president of the Republic has just created a situation of exceptional gravity… The gravity of the moment calls for a firm response from the French public against the incredible autocratic abuse of power to which it finds itself victim.”

Which is somewhat rich coming from a party that engaged in political gamesmanship to rob the right of a wipeout victory. The only reason Rassemblement National isn’t currently leading the French parliament is Mélonchon made a deal with Macron to drop out of races where there was potential for a split vote. 

As I previously noted, Rassemblement National increased its 89 seats to 142 and increased their national vote share to around 40% of the electorate. All in the face of a concerted effort by Macron and Mélonchon to stop them.

So, no. The French left doesn’t have some magical mandate to force concessions onto the centrists and the right. In fact, the mechanism by which Macron and the right would force the hypothetical far-left Prime Minister to step down is far more constitutional than the shadowy deals that got France in this mess in the first place. 

A no-confidence vote is a perfectly valid response when nearly 2/3s of the legislature refuses to be governed by leftist insanity. Are price controls, costly environmental policies, and an exorbitant wealth tax not reasons to question the ruling capability of the government in power? 

To that I give a resounding oui!

Macron was successfully able to trick the left into preventing a right-wing avalanche, but now seemingly has crafted a new set of problems, one which might result in his party’s exile from public life. 

Should that vote of no-confidence go through, there would either need to be a new Prime Minister and government created thus leading the Republic back to where it currently is, or the legislature would be dissolved and new elections would occur. 

In the case of the latter, the deal between Macron and Mélonchon would not hold, and thus vote splitting would ensure Le Pen’s rise to power. Or, catastrophically, voters might punish Macron’s centrist coalition by giving total power to Mélonchon granting him a total majority and the power to enact his communist agenda with no restrictions. 

Either way, Macron looks to be in deep trouble.

Or is he? This is Macron we’re talking about, and Monsieur le President always seems to have a trick up his sleeve. Are we witnessing the end of the Fifth Republic? It’s doubtful.

Turbulence is the norm in France, it’s practically their national sport.