On Tuesday French President Emmanuel Macron said that his government will stay in place until mid-August while France hosts the Olympic Games, dismissing an effort by a left-wing alliance to name a prime minister.
France’s leftist New Popular Front coalition won the largest number of seats in parliament in elections this month. The new coalition proposed financial crime specialist Lucie Castets as its candidate for prime minister only an hour before Macron spoke in a TV interview.
On asking about Castets, who is unknown to the public, Macron said, ‘This is not the issue. The name is not the issue. The issue is: Which majority can emerge at the (National) Assembly?’
Macron added, ‘Until mid-August, we’re in no position to change things, because it would create disorder’. The Olympic Games in Paris, which run from Friday to August 11, are a major logistics and security challenge for France, with 35 venues and an estimated 10,500 athletes.
Since the election France has been in a state of parliamentary deadlock. No party won an outright majority of seats in the lower house of parliament, which is fragmented broadly into three blocs.
The leftist coalition has sought to propose a new prime minister to succeed outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, but has ruled out deals with other political forces and does not have enough seats to form a majority government.
According to the French constitution,
‘It is up to the president to name a prime minister, so the leftist coalition has no way to force Macron’s hand. Instead, the president requested political parties to work on forming a broader coalition’, according to the French constitution.
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