(Bloomberg) -- France’s Socialists, with support from the Greens and the Communists, are proposing veteran climate negotiator Laurence Tubiana as their candidate to lead the next government.
Speaking on France Inter radio, Socialist leader Olivier Faure said the parties picked her because of her reputation as an economist focusing on green and social issues, and her work on taxing corporate profits in Europe to finance the climate transition.
“She corresponds completely to what we have defended for a long time and in this campaign particularly — ensuring we have a republic that is social and ecological,” Faure said.
The suggestion marks a possible first step toward stitching together a governing majority after this month’s elections left the French parliament split into three blocs with major differences between each. That said, some parties may push for a more political profile for the prime minister position.
France is facing a political impasse with no consensus over who should lead the next administration after a turbulent campaign that saw investors dumping French assets on concerns that either Marine Le Pen’s far right or the far-left France Unbowed would gain the upper hand.
President Emmanuel Macron has called for all parties that support the European Union and the rule of law to come together to form a government — signaling that he wants to exclude both Le Pen and the far-left.
Tubiana is chief executive officer at the European Climate Foundation and has been involved in climate negotiations for more than a quarter of a century, helping to broker the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and the Paris Accord in 2015. She didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Deeper Division
The nomination of Tubiana, who is 73, drives deeper the division within the left-wing bloc, the New Popular Front, which includes the Socialists as well as France Unbowed and has the largest number of seats in the lower house.
The group has been struggling to unite behind a candidate for prime minister as the far-left refuses any kind of alliance with Macron, who has dubbed them extremists. However, any new government would need to draw support from across party lines to avoid being brought down in no-confidence votes.
France Unbowed lawmaker Manuel Bompard said in an interview on France 2 television that Tubiana’s candidacy is “not serious” because she was one of dozens who signed an editorial that called for a program that would include other parties, including Macron’s.
“If this is the profile our partners are working on, I’ll fall off my chair,” Bompard said. “The aim is to build a New Popular Front government to apply the New Popular Front program and certainly not to prepare a coalition with Macronists.”
On Monday, France Unbowed said it was pausing talks with the rest of the leftist group on proposals for forming a government, to focus on choosing a president for the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament.
The Socialist party is confident that it will be able to convince France Unbowed of the merit of Tubiana’s candidacy, party lawmaker Philippe Brun said on Bloomberg TV. The New Popular Front won’t go into a coalition with Macron’s group, he added.
The Socialists’ plan is to have a finance minister who would both be able to deliver on campaign promises, including raising the minimum wage, while also securing funding for France’s debt, he said. “There are some tax loopholes” that are being considered for elimination by the budget committee to help balance the books, he said.
Later on Tuesday, Macron is expected to accept the resignation of current premier Gabriel Attal, who will likely continue to run the government’s day-to-day activities until a successor is found.
(Updates with Socialist member of parliament’s comments in 13th, 14th paragraphs.)
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