France: deadlock in NFP – take the fight to the streets!

Weeks after the second round of the legislative elections saw the left take the highest number of seats in the Assembly, internal negotiations within the New Popular Front (NFP) are logjammed. A division between the NFP’s left and right wing is preventing agreement on a candidate for Prime Minister. Meanwhile, Macron and the far-right are courting more conservative elements of the bloc to shut out La France Insoumise (LFI), block the NFP’s programme, and seek an absolute majority. Only militant struggle outside of parliament can break this impasse!

[Originally published in French at marxiste.org]

Let's summarise the situation. The Socialist Party (PS) proposed asking Macron to appoint Laurence Tubiana as Prime Minister, an independent climate diplomat, with the agreement of the Greens and Communist Party (PCF). A career bureaucrat, she proposed to "reach out to the other actors of the Republican Front" – that is to say, to the Macronists – "to discuss a Republican emergency programme", which would be a completely different programme than that of the NFP.

Hence the refusal of LFI, which says it wants to stick to “the whole program". It proposed Huguette Bello, President of the Regional Council of Réunion (and not a member of LFI). The PS categorically rejected this attempt at a ‘compromise candidate’. Subsequently, Bello and Tubiana officially abandoned their bids.

Division in NFP

There is a stark divergence between the left and right of the NFP, represented respectively by LFI and PS. The leaders of the PCF and the Greens, but also LFI-associated figures such as François Ruffin, CGT General Secretary Sophie Binet, and a few others, minimise this political divergence and denounce "arguments based on egos". They are above all seeking to hide the fact that they themselves lean clearly towards the right. That is to say, towards the opportunist position defended by the leadership of the PS: a renunciation of the NFP programme in favour of a more right-wing programme "negotiated" with the Macronists.

What policy would a parliamentary majority made up of the NFP and the Macronists pursue? François Ruffin (who has just split to the right from LFI) enthusiastically asserts that this government could implement at least part of the progressive measures in the NFP programme. Is this true? We cannot completely rule out that certain measures in the NFP programme – the most symbolic, the least painful for the bourgeoisie – would be implemented by such a government. But this would only be sugarcoating to force down everything else: the bulk of the government policy, which would be a reactionary raft of cuts and austerity.

In a context of stagnation of the French economy and the slippage of its public accounts, the Macronists, who take their orders from the bosses’ organisation Medef, would not be willing to undo what they have done over the past seven years. By participating in this kind of government coalition, the NFP would soon discredit itself completely amongst its own voters.

In itself, such a perspective is not likely to dissuade the PS leaders from embarking on this path. After all, the fundamental role of social democracy, historically, is precisely to betray the aspirations of the working class by governing on behalf of the bourgeoisie. This is what François Hollande did between 2012 and 2017; this is what Lionel Jospin and François Mitterrand did before him.

As for the leaders of the PCF and the Greens, they participated in several of these “left” governments whose betrayals played a central role in the electoral rise of National Rally (RN) and Le Pen. Judging by their statements in recent weeks, they seem willing to repeat this experience.

Will there be a sellout?

Mélenchon claims that a coalition with Macronists would make Marine Le Pen gain "ten points in one go" / Image: European Parliament, Flickr

However, at least at this stage, LFI leaders are not ready to sacrifice the relative authority they have accumulated since 2016 on the altar of a government coalition with the Macronists. Mélenchon claims that this coalition would make Marine Le Pen gain "ten points in one go". This is indisputable; and the FI would lose the points that the RN would gain.

Will the PS, the Greens and the PCF launch themselves alone – without LFI – into open negotiations with the Macronists with a view to forming the next government? It is entirely possible, but it is clear that they are hesitant, at this stage, to cross this Rubicon.

There are good reasons for this. On the one hand, from the simple point of view of parliamentary arithmetic, the 72 FI deputies who would be missing from the roll call would have to be replaced by as many deputies from the right, so that the PS, the Greens and the PCF would be in the minority within the government coalition. They would be reduced to the status of "left-wing guarantors" of a Macronist government – a prospect that these careerists likely do not relish.

But on the other hand, we can assume that they thought seriously about it for a few minutes, and that after this exceptional effort, they came across the following obvious fact: a governing alliance of the PS, the Greens and the PCF with the Macronists, without the participation of LFI , would result in the strengthening of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's movement, which would then appear as the only left-wing opposition.

This is what the leaders of the PS, the Greens and the PCF fear and want to avoid – all the more so since new legislative elections will probably be on the agenda soon, not to mention the possibility of an early presidential election.

Limitations of left reformists

How will all this evolve over the coming weeks and months? It is difficult to anticipate and we will not speculate here. Nothing can be excluded – not even a capitulation of LFI leaders. The current political crisis means that all sorts of combinations are possible. But the crisis also means that each of these combinations will be more fragile than the next – and could succeed one another at an unprecedented pace.

On 19 July, in an interview with BFM TV, Mélenchon formulated his position quite clearly: the NFP must form a government, reaffirm its intention to implement "the entire programme" and, from then on, place the responsibility on the right and the far right to vote for a motion of censure. After which, Mélenchon continued, censures will be brought against any other government coalition, until, sooner or later, Macron himself is forced to resign.

This position shows greater clarity than the waffling leaders of the PS, the Greens and the PCF. Regardless of the formation (or not) of an NFP government, it is true that the current crisis could lead to Macron's resignation.

However, Mélenchon's position is distinguished above all by its total passivity, insofar as it does not go beyond the confines of the National Assembly. Throughout this 30-minute interview, at no point did Mélenchon call on the workers’ organisations to prepare extra-parliamentary struggles. This is the major deficiency of his position, and of the position of the leaders of LFI in general.

Let us recall that, while the NFP came out on top on 7 July, it is the right and the far right – from the Macronists to the RN – that dominate the National Assembly numerically. Unsurprisingly, these bourgeois parties have announced that they have no intention of letting the NFP govern to implement its programme. They have also demonstrated this by re-electing the Macronist Yaël Braun-Pivet as speaker of the Assembly.

No more manoeuvres: we need action!

Mélenchon's position is distinguished above all by its total passivity / Image: The Left, Flickr

Workers and youth can expect nothing good from the new National Assembly; they will only be able to count on their own strength. Only big social mobilisations, demonstrations and massive strikes will open up the prospect of wresting serious improvements in our living, working and studying conditions. The axis of the struggle is no longer on the parliamentary terrain, it is in the streets, in workplaces and in working-class neighbourhoods.

LFI leaders will perhaps end up, sooner or later, recognising this state of affairs. But in the meantime, they are content with parliamentary manoeuvres. As we recently explained, "we are touching here on the classic limits – observed a thousand times – of the leaders of the left wing of reformism. Precisely because they are reformists, and not revolutionaries, they are organically incapable of breaking with the right wing of reformism, which itself has not the slightest intention of breaking with the bourgeoisie."

If, instead of playing hide-and-seek with right-wing reformists like the PS’s Olivier Faure and his ilk, LFI leaders called on workers and youth to prepare major social struggles, this would precipitate a split in the NFP to the benefit of the left. But LFI leaders want to avoid such a split. The result is utter confusion "on the left", whose main beneficiary, once again, will be the National Rally.

In this context, workers and youth must not wait passively to find out with what superficial flavour of governance they will be served up to the bosses. Trade union activists, in particular, must put pressure on their leaderships to develop an offensive battle plan armed with a radical programme.

As for LFI activists, they must demand that their leaders stop their parliamentary manoeuvres and turn to the workers' movement to build a real front of struggle. Finally, we call on all those who understand the need to put an end to the capitalist system itself to join us – and build, with us an authentic Communist Party.