Macron’s Push to Fast Track Coalition Talks Makes Little Headway
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(Bloomberg) -- President Emmanuel Macron’s bid to clinch a coalition agreement in French parliament by next week looks increasingly unlikely.
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The legislative trouncing earlier this month means Macron will have to build alliances to pass legislation, a situation not seen in France since 1958. But at the Matignon palace in Paris where premier Elisabeth Borne has been meeting party representatives from across the political spectrum, negotiations have yielded few results so far.
Members of the left-wing Nupes grouping led by firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon said late last night that the two sides disagree on most points of Macron’s pro-business agenda, including how best to introduce a law to help people cope with the cost-of-living crisis and plans to tackle climate change. Borne didn’t offer any concrete proposals or concessions that might have encouraged them to join a coalition, either.
We weren’t even speaking the same language, quipped one of the greens.
Borne did say that pushing the French to retire later, at 65 instead of 62, wasn’t an obsession, signaling tweaks to Macron’s planned pension reform are possible. But with no outright majority in the National Assembly and facing widespread opposition in the streets, Macron was always going to find that legislation difficult, if not impossible, to pass.
Over the coming days, Borne will meet with representatives of right-wing parties, some of whom could be more tempted to join her government.
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