As France's left-wing alliance scrambles to agree on a candidate for prime minister after taking the most parliamentary seats in the July 7 snap election, the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party has proposed veteran politician Huguette Bello as a compromise candidate. The former Communist Party member from the French overseas region of Reunion is a respected politician whose candidacy is supported by most parties in the New Popular Front coalition, but the Socialists appear to be reluctant to endorse her, explains Damien Lecomte from the Paris Pantheon Sorbonne University.
After nearly a week of frantic negotiations, Huguette Bello emerged as a contender for the French prime minister’s post when Jean-Luc Mélenchon of the hard left France Unbowed (LFI) party hailed the latest “solution” to the political impasse that has gripped France since the July 7 legislative elections produced a hung parliament.
