France’s far right opposes the left-wing prime minister, complicating Macron’s calculus By Reuters

By Elizabeth Pineau

PARIS (Reuters) – Leaders of France’s far-right National Rally said on Monday their party would block any prime ministerial candidate from the left-wing New Popular Front, narrowing President Emmanuel Macron’s options to resolve the country’s political crisis.

Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, the political team leading the National Rally, met with Macron on Monday as he tries to break the political deadlock caused by the inconclusive snap legislative election in July, which he called.

After their hour-long meeting, Bardella said the New Popular Front – a broad alliance of parties ranging from the moderate Socialists to Jean-Luc Melenchon’s hard-left France – was a “danger” to the country.

Bardella said his camp would immediately call a no-confidence vote against any left-wing prime minister.

“The New Popular Front in its program, in its movements, as well as the personalities that embody it represent a danger to public order, civil peace and, obviously, to the economic life of the country,” Bardella told reporters. “We intend to protect the country from a government that would fracture French society.”

A Macron aide said the president could name a prime minister by the end of this week, but it remains to be seen whether the person he chooses – someone with the broadest possible appeal – will win the approval of lawmakers. If not, Macron will have to go back to the drawing board, deepening the political crisis.

No group emerged from the snap election with a majority, with the vote split evenly between the New Popular Front, Macron’s centrist bloc and the National Rally.

The new Popular Front won more votes than any other party and argued that its candidate, a little-known civil servant named Lucie Castets, should be appointed prime minister.

Castets told Macron on Friday that the left has the right to form the next government.

Macron has ignored the nomination of the New Popular Front, and a source close to him said he believed the balance of power rested more with the center or the center-right.

Possible candidates Macron is considering include a conservative regional president, Xavier Bertrand, and former Socialist premier Bernard Cazeneuve, sources said. French media recently mentioned Karim Bouamrane, the socialist mayor of a poor Paris suburb, as another possible name.

Le Pen suggested Macron could call a referendum to chart a way out of the chaos and said she opposed a so-called “technical” government of apolitical technocrats, saying “behind the technical names are only political governments “.