French President Emmanuel Macron is facing fresh political hurdles as his political enemies threatened him with impeachment after a so-called “Olympic truce” ended.
Macron had enjoyed a reprieve from open attacks on his premiership during the Games, which saw France scoop up 16 gold medals beating the UK by two.
But any goodwill that was around for the oldest sports competition in the world has now gone with Macron given a rude awakening by the leftist France Insoumise (LFI) party.
In an article published in La Tribue over the weekend, leaders of the LFI accused Macron of staging an “institutional coup against democracy” by appointing a head of government without “taking into account the result of the last legislative elections”.
LFI had wanted their candidate Lucie Castets to be put forward as Prime Minister, however, this option was dismissed by Macron during the Olympics.
France has been gripped by political turmoil in recent months which came to a head with a snap general election called by Macron in June, the subsequent two rounds of voting resulted in no party holding an overall majority.
In the first round, the far-right National Rally came top, however, in the second round of voting the multi-party coalition of the New Popular Front (NPF) secured first place.
Overall President Macron’s party, the Ensemble Alliance, came second and the National Rally finished third.
Now leaders of the LFI, which formed part of the election-winning NPF, want their candidate for prime minister put forward, and they are threatening Macron with impeachment under Article 68 of the French Constitution for “abuse of power”.
European news site Euroactiv reports Macron will face crunch negotiations with political rivals on Friday, August 23, and his government said: “The appointment of a Prime Minister will follow on from these consultations and their conclusions”.
For her part, the LFI candidate Lucie Castets sent a letter to MPs from the NPF urging them to support her bid as Prime Minister.
The multi-party NPF is also made up of the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, and representatives from the Green Party.
However, the PM hopeful did not include MPs from the National Rally party in her correspondence despite asserting that she wanted to unite the political landscape.