French press review 13 May 2017

Peace has broken out between French president-elect Emmanuel Macron and his chief centrist ally, François Bayrou. Or has it?

According to Le Monde, François Bayrou last night announced that his MoDem party had reached a "solid and balanced" agreement with Macron's men on a list of MoDem candidates to be included in the presidential squad for next month's parliamentary elections.

That has, at least for the moment, calmed spirits on the two sides.

Earlier Bayrou claimed that the terms of his pact with the newly-elected president included at least 120 figures from the ranks of MoDem. Macron's people replied that there was no "pact" and that they were choosing potential candidates on merit, not political affiliation.

There were just 38 MoDem candidates among the 400-odd announced on Thursday. Bayrou spluttered that up with this he would not put. There was talk of treachery and betrayal. Smoke in the engine room before the new man even got his hands on the wheel.

So last night, following a meeting of the MoDem main men, a new list of names was produced and, this time, Bayrou assured the waiting press, the Macronites will have to like it or lump it. François Bayrou hopes to see no fewer than 145 members of his centrist party compete for seats in the new parliament.

A lover's tiff or a stage-managed wrestlers' wrangle?

Over at right-wing Le Figaro they see the clash between Bayrou and Macron as anything but an accident.

The fundamental problem is that one man is convinced the president-elect owes his victory to Bayrou, while the other is convinced that the association with Macron's rising star has saved Bayrou from political oblivion.

Both points of view are true, says Le Figaro. But the price to be paid depends on how you look at it.

Bayrou's official support for Macron, announced at the end of February, certainly added four points to the young man's opinion poll standings - Bayrou says the true figure was six points. Whatever. The impact enabled Macron to pull away from mainstream right candidate François Fillon. Mathematically, psychologically and politically, the return was not inconsiderable.

But where does that leave the man who has promised to completely overhaul the French political machine?

Le Figaro says it is now clear that Macron sold part of his soul to Bayrou in exchange for his support, a sad, early indication that the new broom in French politics has already been forced to use the old techniques.

Unless, of course, Macron stands his ground against Bayrou, as he already has against Manuel Valls, and is cleverly using this staged battle of the allies as a demonstration that nothing and nobody will stand in his way on the road to renewal. We'll see.

A left-wing look at right-wing family solidarity

Left-leaning Libération looks at how the right-wing Republicans are viewing all this.

With Bayrou already rocking the boat, the Republicans and their allied Union of Democarts and Independents are modestly boasting about their family unity, promising to sweep to power in the new National Assembly and thus put manners on the upstart president.

Unity?

These are the people who have more factions than they have members. Who, a few weeks ago, were involved in street fights over support for soldier Fillon. Who are Juppéists, Sarkozists, Wauquerians, Copéist (that's singular, given that the man got less than three-tenths of a percent in the party primary), Baroinists, violinistes, trumpetistes and so on.

And many of them are clearly planning to jump ship and join Macron. If they get the call. The clever option, for the moment, is to wait patiently until next Friday and the publication of the right-wing/centrist list of candidates for the June election. Members who talk too loudly about a working partnership with the incoming centrist president risk being stricken from the list and replaced by more combative dudes.

Those who roll over and have their bellies tickled can hope to be treated a bit like Manuel Valls - not part of the presidential family but not strictly opponents either.

The new French political landscape has every chance of looking a lot like the old one.