Socialist party in disarray after Macron reveals possible socialist PM pick
French President Emmanuel Macron will meet former Socialist behemoth Bernard Cazeneuve amid ongoing prime minister appointment talks on Monday (2 September), according to confirmation obtained by Euractiv – a move that has sent the Socialist Party into a panic.
Over the weekend, persistent rumours circulated that Cazeneuve could be Macron’s choice to take on the prime minister’s role, some 50 days into a deep political impasse that has left France without a coalition government.
It even shattered the Socialist Party’s united front at its ‘summer university’ – an annual gathering in rural Blois that marks the party’s political rentrée and which Euractiv attended – and revealed serious internal divisions on how to deal with the possibility that one of their own, despite having renounced his party membership in 2022, could get the top job.
Nemesis Cazeneuve
The nomination would officially put an end to the – ever so slim – possibility of nominating the little-known Lucie Castets, who has been the joint candidate of the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) since July. Earlier this week, Macron ruled out a coalition government with Castets, citing the risk that it would never survive a no-confidence vote.
Cazeneuve, for his part, has become a nemesis to a large swath of the party’s top leadership.
A former prime minister at the twilight of Hollande’s time in office, Cazeneuve held a series of ministerial posts under the Socialist administration (2012-2017), including for home affairs, budget and EU affairs.
Most importantly, he was a vocal critic of the 2022 left-wing NUPES alliance formed and its 2024 NFP spinoff – which, as an alliance between the Socialist Party, the Communists, the Greens and Jean-Luc-Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise (LFI), came out on top in July’s legislative elections, despite being 100 seats short of an absolute majority – blaming the socialists for giving in to LFI, deemed too radical.
They see him as the man behind a right-wing shift in the Socialist Party’s doctrine under Hollande, which ultimately led to its defeat in the 2017 legislative elections.
A source briefed on the matter told Euractiv off the record that Cazeneuve will be meeting with Macron on Monday, confirming media reports.
This puts the socialists at a crossroads: Should they throw in their support behind a Cazeneuve government, hoping to influence policy priorities, and break ties with the NFP? Or should they remain in opposition no matter what, even if this comes at the risk of appearing dogmatic and irresponsible?
French Socialists between a rock and a hard place amid country’s ongoing political crisis
Divisions and frustrations are growing within France’s Socialist Party as it struggles to agree on whether to take part in future coalition talks in the hope of entering government, an approach that risks bringing down the left-wing union that got them elected.
It’s not who, it’s what
The official party line has always been to protect the left-wing alliance, but this is being challenged more than ever.
Party leaders say they are willing to give Cazeneuve a chance as long as key demands – the withdrawal of the now infamous 2023 pension law and an increase in the minimum wage – are taken into account.
“It’s not about who becomes prime minister, but instead what their priorities are,” MEP Aurore Lalucq, who is not a member of the socialist party but belongs to the same European S&D family, told Euractiv earlier this week.
Lalucq says she is open to talks with other parties, apart from the far right: “We can start negotiations, even if they don’t end”.
For S&D MEP François Kalfon, picking Cazeneuve is good news, making him one of several dozen senior party leaders to have come out in favour of joining future coalition talks.
“He may not implement 100% of the NFP programme [as part of a coalition government], but we can agree on key components,” he said, adding that “any compromise amounts to a trade-off.”
The source Euractiv spoke to confirmed that his appointment was on the cards: “Some MPs from the socialist party and the [centre-right] support him. But it’s far from a done deal yet,” the source said.
Kalfon calls on his political family to look at what happens in the European Parliament, where consensus-building is the norm, and adapt their thinking at the national level.
“A parallel can be drawn between the functioning of the Parliament vis-à-vis the European Commission and the political situation in France after the snap legislative elections,” Kalfon added.
The Brief – Is Macron still the EU’s man?
While the absence of any viable coalition government in France, a situation lasting 50 days and counting, may be new for the French, it is not unusual in other EU countries. That said, the longer this continues, the more it stains Emmanuel Macron’s reputation on the EU stage.
Macron’s aim to “make political parties implode”
But throwing its weight behind Cazeneuve would implode the NFP, frustrate the Socialists’ electoral base and risk being associated with Macron and the right, other party leaders warn.
“If you want to govern without the NFP and with the right, you will become the right,” said the party’s top man Olivier Faure in Blois, denying any real internal “divisions”.
Current parliamentary arithmetic suggests that any coalition government would only remain in office if the far right abstained in a no-confidence vote unless the left lent its support: “We don’t want to govern with the benevolence of the far right, nor be Macron’s hostages,” Faure explained.
“Macron’s only aim is to make political parties implode,” a source close to Faure, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, told Euractiv.
“He did it with the right. He wants to do it with the left – that’s the whole logic behind the Cazeneuve rumours,” the source added.
More will be known after Macron and Cazeneuve meet on Monday.
Read more with Euractiv
