PARIS (Reuters) – Stop the infighting and get your act together, French Green leader Marine Tondelier urged fellow left-wing party leaders on Wednesday as talks within the bloc on a joint candidate for prime minister appeared to have hit a dead end.
“I’m angry, I’m disgusted, I’m fed up and I’m sorry for the spectacle we’re giving the French,” Tondelier told France 2 television, adding that she felt too ashamed to look voters in the eye while political rivals were watching the left’s failure “with popcorn”.
Following their surprise election win on July 7, leaders of the leftist New Popular Front alliance were quick to say they would form a government and name a prime minister within days.
No progress has since been made and the left has shifted its focus to try to agree on a candidate for president of the new national assembly that convenes for the first time on Thursday.
“Our hope has turned to anger, our joy has turned to shame,” Tondelier said, adding that the political haggling was mainly due to differences between the bloc’s two largest parties, the moderate Socialists and hardleft France Unbowed (LFI).
President Emmanuel Macron meanwhile has tasked his outgoing prime minister, Gabriel Attal, with brokering a larger coalition able to muster a “solid” majority, pressuring the more moderate parts of the leftist alliance to ditch LFI.
(Reporting by Jean-Stephane Brosse and Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Christina Fincher)
