Although all the left-wing factions spent the presidential campaign criticizing each other, the agreement they found at the beginning of May to form the New Popular, Environmental and Social Union (NUPES) allowed them to form a block in the June legislative elections and clinch 151 seats in the Assemblée Nationale. At the end of the first legislative session, an initial assessment reveals the coalition's overall satisfaction with its functioning. "The agreement that we reached in ten days at the national level could seem precarious. But the common policy program has allowed us to form a real coalition," said Julien Bayou, the co-chair of the Green group in the Assemblée.
"Within the cross-party group, extremely different political cultures coexist," said chairman of the Communist group André Chassaigne. These approaches were expressed in three ways when the groups assumed positions on legislation. The Socialists, for example, mostly supported bill on measures against Covid-19, while more radical La France Insoumise (LFI) and the Communists largely voted against, and the Greens abstained. On the purchasing power bill, the Socialist group abstained, while LFI, the Communists and the Greens voted against.
Worries among the Socialists
With nearly 60 additional seats gained compared to the previous legistlature, the LFI group has new weight on the Assemblée's benches and taken advantage of this to expand its strategy of conflict. This is reflected in its numerous attacks against the majority and the far-right Rassemblement National, its more frequent impromptu interventions, points of order, and the filing of hundreds of amendments, sometimes only to rename the government's proposals, like the one brought by the Hadrien Clouet to rename the "Macron bonus" as "smokescreen bonus."
This strategy of constant stunts is not supported by parts of the Socialist and Communist groups, who remain dubious about the method's effectiveness. At the beginning of the legislative period, LFI's motion of no confidence against the Borne government caused tension among the Socialists. Six of the group's 31 MPs, including former group chair Valérie Rabault, abstained from the vote, believing there was no point in condemning a government not yet put to the test. For Philippe Brun, his colleagues above all "refused LFI's method of filing this motion without consulting its partners." LFI was especially criticized at the start of the term for taking initiatives in too solitary a manner. "There were some wobbles and things that we forgot to communicate due to a lack of habit. As they say, we learn by doing," said Ugo Bernalicis, who recognizes that he himself made a mistake in filing a motion to censure the health bill without warning the other groups.
Even though its voice is now more powerful, the left unanimously regrets having achieved very little during the parliamentary session, with the adoption of only one strong amendment on the budget amendment bill – providing additional financing for local authorities – and the failure of its flagship measures, such as a tax on super-profits or the increase in the minimum wage. "We didn't manage to get many of our proposals adopted. Both because the government only reached out to LR and because we lacked coordination on the preparation of amendments, and perhaps also because sometimes we did not have a constructive approach in the chamber," said Mr. Chassaigne. For Ms. Pirès Beaune, MPs will have to work "more upstream to file together a maximum of identical amendments that have a better chance of being adopted."
Faltering steps
Less than three weeks after the legislative elections, the apparent unity of the NUPES has begun to crack. On July 16, the day of the Vel'd'Hiv Roundup commemoration, the president of the LFI group, Mathilde Panot, tweeted criticism of both the "crimes of the [Nazi] collaborationists" and Emmanuel Macron, a "president who pays tribute to [French collaborationist leader] Pétain." The message was widely criticized by parts of the NUPES.
At the end of July, a controversy flared up again around a motion for a resolution condemning the "apartheid regime instituted by Israel against the Palestinian people," tabled by Communist MPs and co-signed by 37 MPs. Several NUPES lawmakers, such as Socialist MP Jérôme Guedj, opposed it, believing that their should understand that now they are united, they "are committed to each other". Four of the co-signatories quietly withdrew their names from the proposal: LFI execs Mathilde Panot and Adrien Quatennens and the Socialist MPs Christine Pirès Beaune and Claudia Rouaux.
The fundamental differences of left-wing parties on French foreign policy, deemed irreconcilable during the presidential election but swept under the rug when the time came to reach an agreement for the legislative elections, reappeared during the ratification of the Finnish and Swedish NATO accession protocols on August 2. Socialists and Greens voted in favor; the Communists mostly abstained and LFI opposed it – their presidential program proposed leaving NATO's integrated command.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon's blog post on Taiwan, which reiterated Beijing's position that "there is only one China," further disunited the coalition. His remarks were strongly criticized by many Green and Socialist MPs.
Direct opposition strategy
Ms. Pirès Beaune is among the MPs who oppose Mr. Mélenchon's foreign policy, although she believes that this does not hinder NUPES work in the Assemblée: "We are not aligned behind a great leader and a single message, this is what some did not understand, in good or bad faith, when the creation of the cross-party group was announced." "It's almost tiresome that every time there is disagreement with something that has been said, we are told that NUPES is dead: we are a coalition, not an alignment, so it is normal that we have this kind of debate," added Mr. Bayou, yet he is also severe in his condemnation of the LFI leader's statements. "We must learn to play down the existence of these disagreements," agreed Green MP Benjamin Lucas.
But because of this internal discord and a strategy of direct opposition that "the responsible left" will eventually tire of, the Renaissance MPs believe that the left-wing alliance will not last in the Palais-Bourbon in the long term. "Apart from the PS, they have shown that the noise and fury were actually a political tactic devoid of interest in the French people," said the MP Sacha Houlié. For the MoDem MP Mohamed Laqhila, NUPES represents "a hell of an electoral hold-up," which, if it remains led by LFI, "runs the risk of making the far right appear as a responsible opposition" and will eventually "shatter."
With the arrival of the examination of bills on sovereignty and the 2023 budget, the new session will represent a challenge to NUPES unity, and above all to the role it can play during the next five years. The launch of a flash mission on the taxation of super-profits in September by the finance committee, which is chaired by the NUPES, could be a way for it to impose its agenda.