Alexandre Chauveau, edited by Laura Laplaud
Barely elected, Emmanuel Macron faces the other candidates who are already turned towards the legislative elections. Starting with the president of La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who dreams of cohabitation with the President of the Republic. However, the institutions were made to prevent such a situation from occurring.
Political cohabitation for Emmanuel Macron’s next five-year term? This is what Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants. The leader of La France insoumise, third in the first round of the presidential election on April 10, called on the French to vote for insoumise deputies in the legislative elections. A cohabitation would mean that the Prime Minister would not be on the same political side as Emmanuel Macron. If this is envisaged by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the institutions nevertheless prevent such a situation from occurring.
Avoid cohabitations
Because when the French adopted in 2000 the five-year term by referendum, it was precisely to align the mandate of the president with that of the deputies. The objective being to avoid the cohabitations which marked the two seven years of François Mitterrand, judged as a brake on the action of the Head of State.
However, as of last week, Jean-Luc Mélenchon surprised by speaking of the legislative elections as a third round. The Insoumis leader has asked his voters to elect him Prime Minister, a way of overcoming the second round of the presidential election and above all of raising his electorate’s awareness of the stakes of the elections next June.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is betting in particular on the absence of a state of grace for Emmanuel Macron and on the particularly long period between the two elections this year, two months, which could play against the head of state.
Alliances between parties?
The Insoumis leader therefore hopes to capitalize on his 7.7 million votes in the first round, even if a defeat with a good score in the presidential election rarely translates into a high number of deputies. But Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to believe in his chances, for the moment tiny, and is working to unite the left. Party agreements could thus be reached, at the local level, before the end of the week.