The leaders of France’s opposition parties say a 12-hour meeting with President Emmanuel Macron that ended in the early hours of Thursday morning left them unconvinced of his efforts to forge unity on issues dividing the nation. Macron had been hoping the exercise would help break the deadlock of a hung parliament.
Unsurprisingly, no grand agreement was announced after the end of the meeting between Macron, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, and the 11 heads of France's political parties in parliament.
The closed-door talks, which consisted of two roundtables and a dinner, took place at the school of the Legion of Honour in the working-class suburb of Saint-Denis, just outside of Paris.
Sources at the Elysee Palace described the meetin as “fruitful”, adding that Macron had held out a hand to the opposition. Government spokesperson Olivier Veran told France Info the event stood to "mark the political history of our country”.
Criticism
The opposition, whowever, was not so easily won over.
Eric Ciotti, the head of the conservative Les Republicains, which has most often provided votes for Macron’s legislation, told France 2 television he was unconvinced by the results of the meeting, even if he found the idea useful.
Manuel Bompard, from the hard-left France Unbowed party, dismissed the meeting as window-dressing.
“I had the impression of living 12 hours on the planet Mars, with a certain number of debates, discussions and presentations, but no announcements, no concrete measures,” he told France Info.
Meanwhile Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the EELV green party, which is part of the France Unbowed Nupes alliance in the National Assembly, said she was disappointed by the lack of concrete results.
National secretary of the Communist Party, Fabien Roussel, was less harsh.
“I cannot say it was useless, because we spoke to each other, and speaking is already a good thing,” he told RTL radio, noting that it had been six months since Macron had made a move to engage with the opposition.
“There is dialogue now,” he said. “And I have always been in favour of dialogue.”
On the far right, president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, admitted that there had been frank and open debates, but said they were inconclusive.
Deadlock in parliament
Macron had floated the idea of holding referendums to overcome parliamentary deadlock, with much of the meeting devoted to various proposals.
The left would like to put an unpopular pension reform forced through parliament this year to a popular vote, while the conservatives and far-right both want to see a referendum on immigration.
Macron said he would send a letter in the coming days summarising the areas that need work – a document that "anyone could amend” – before a new round of talks takes place.
All parties have agreed to another future meeting held in the same format and under the same conditions.
(with newswires)
