The heated fray of French politics has reignited since the close of the Olympics, with the hard left rallying for power and some factions even pushing to impeach President Emmanuel Macron.
The left-wing coalition, the New Popular Front (NFP), is hosting a series of "summer schools" to promote their candidate for prime minister, Lucie Castets.
The NFP, which includes the Communists (PCF), Ecologists and Jean-Luc Melenchon's hard left France Unbowed (LFI) is hosting conferences to discuss how to form a viable coalition.
Castets will be speaking at events across the country, including engagements with the Ecologists in Tours, the PCF in Montpellier, the LFI in Valence and the Socialist Party in Blois.
However, the NFP’s unity is fragile. Melenchon and his LFI are threatening to start an impeachment process against Macron, who is hesitant to appoint a far-left prime minister and appears to favour candidates from the moderate left or centre-right.
Impeachment – how realistic?
In the United States, impeachment is a well-established process embedded in the constitution. The president (and other top officials) are removed from office in case of "treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanours".
Only four US presidents have faced impeachment, with none being removed from office. Andrew Johnson (1968) and Bill Clinton (1999) were acquitted; Richard Nixon resigned from office before the end of the procedure (1974); and Donald Trump, who faced the impeachment process twice (in 2020 and 2021) was also acquitted.
In France, however, the ability to impeach a president is a relatively new concept, introduced in 2007 and strengthened in 2014 under president François Hollande.
Until 2014 the president continued to enjoy the highest protection, including immunity from criminal prosecution while in office.
Hollande's revision of the 1958 Constitution's article 68, which deals with the "criminal liability of the government", gave teeth to the measure.
But no French president has ever been impeached under the Fifth Republic.
Even Hollande, who was accused of leaking national security secrets to journalists at newspaper Le Monde, faced an impeachment attempt that ultimately failed, with only 159 out of 577 lawmakers supporting it.
Macron in crosshairs
The chances of an impeachment against Macron are slim.
Castets has downplayed the issue, focusing instead on "cohabitation" between Macron’s centrist party and a left-wing coalition.
While LFI’s Manuel Bompard insists that impeachment is a "credible possibility," Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure rejects the idea outright.
Acting Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin dismissed the impeachment talk as the hard left’s "wish to plunge France into anarchy".
