Macron to France: 'Build a solid majority'

Macron will choose the prime minister 'in the light of these principles'. Not immediately, then: 'This presupposes giving the political forces time to build these compromises with serenity and respect for everyone. From here and until then the current government will continue to exercise its responsibilities then it will be in charge of current affairs as the republican tradition dictates'.

'Last Sunday,' the letter concludes, 'he called for the invention of a new French political culture. I will watch over this. In your name, I will be its guarantor'. With a somewhat paternalistic approach, which is, however, part of the DNA of French semi-presidentialism, Macron wants to prevent the result of the 2024 elections from just buying some time against the rise of Marine Le Pen's illiberal right and, without evoking it, Jean-Luc Mélenchon's radical left. For himself, he carves out a new task, written into the Constitution, but soon forgotten in a process of progressive 'presidentialisation' of the system: that of overseeing 'respect for the constitution' and ensuring 'by acting as arbiter, the smooth functioning of the public powers'.

The president's letter was preceded by a stance by Renaissance's elected representatives, on X, in favour of 'a project coalition ranging from the social democrats to the right of the government', and excluding La France Insoumise. The elected representatives thus decisively inserted themselves into the dispute between Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, in favour of a broad coalition, and Interior Minister Gèrald Darmanin, who was instead aiming - with the support of Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire in particular - for an agreement with the Républicains alone, on the right.

Renaissance's allies are also starting to open up to the idea of a broad government: the president of the Horizons group, Laurent Marcangeli, called on former president François Hollande to create a 'very temporary agreement that could last until next year' that would start with the Gaullists and reach out to the social democrats, although 'talks can also be opened with the Communist Party and the ecologists'. "You cannot make a government of national union with one camp," added MoDem leader François Bayou.

The president's letter thus somewhat truncates attempts at agreement limited to the right. Among the Gaullists, Xavier Bertrand and Bruno Retailleau had also declared their willingness to ally with the Macronians, provided the government was led by a Républicain, while Laurent Wauquiez, elected president of the parliamentary group 'Republican Right' was much more rigid: "For us, there will be neither coalition nor compromise," he said before the publication of the president's letter. "We will not participate in government coalitions," he added: "We do not believe that one can respond to a country's crisis with a combination of apparatuses."

The Left, which has not yet expressed a name for the post of prime minister, is meanwhile beginning to realise that it will not be able - for reasons that are not only technical but also political - to govern by means of decrees and recourse to Article 49.3 of the Constitution (which on certain matters allows avoiding a parliamentary vote. Consequently, it will not be able to govern alone, even if this consequence has not yet been explicitly admitted.
The ecologist deputy Sandrine Rousseau said that the Front should commit itself not to use 49.3, in fact challenging the opinion of the socialist secretary Olivier Faure, according to whom 'what was done with 49.3, can be abrogated with 49.3' (the reference is to the pension reform). Raphael Glucksmann - now somewhat isolated after his success at the European elections at the head of a socialist coalition - also recalled that 'you cannot govern with decrees and 49.3'.

In the radical left camp, France Insoumise founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon responded harshly to the president's letter, saying that Macron 'refuses to recognise the result of the ballot box' and explaining that he should 'bow down' to the Nouveau Front Populaire. Mélenchon is softening his positions, especially in the fiscal field: he said that the Nouveau Front Populaire 'has no interest in a head-on clash' with the European Union over the stability pact and that the costs of his programme's measures will be covered by 'higher revenues': 'We are quite capable and intelligent' to understand this, said Mélenchon