Emmanuel Macron is meeting with French party and parliamentary leaders this week for negotiations to break the political impasse over who should form a new government.
Since the parliamentary elections in July, France has been led by a caretaker government in which no party had a functioning majority in the National Assembly.
After Macron’s centrist government resigned, the Olympics offered the president a brief window to put domestic politics on hold for a so-called “ceasefire.” But more than a week after the Games ended, critics accused him of playing for time.
To end the deadlock, he will hold “a series of talks” on Friday, as the president’s advisers have described it.
“The appointment of a prime minister will result from these consultations and their conclusions,” the Élysée Palace said, adding that the French people had “expressed a desire for change and broad unity.” The president hoped to “continue to work towards the formation of the broadest and most stable majority possible in the service of the country.”
The centrist and left-wing alliance New Popular Front (NFP) was able to fend off the threat posed by the far-right Rassemblement National (RN) in the second round of the parliamentary elections in July. The lower house of parliament was then split into three roughly equal-sized blocs.
The NFP has put forward Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist and finance director of Paris City Hall, as its candidate for prime minister. Macron, who as president has the right to appoint a head of government, has agreed that she should be present at the talks but has already ruled her out for the post.
“The question is not who is the right person. The question is what majority can be achieved in the assembly,” he said.
The NFP, which won the most seats in the 577-seat assembly, has said that any new prime minister should come from its ranks. Following Macron’s rejection of Castets, the radical left France Inconnu (LFI) threatened to impeach Macron, a move that is unlikely to succeed and has been described by other parties in the left-wing coalition as a diversionary tactic.
Olivier Faure, leader of the Socialist Party, the LFI’s main coalition partner, and acting Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin opposed the move, saying the attempted impeachment showed the extreme left’s desire to “plunge France into anarchy”.
Manuel Bompard of LFI said impeachment was “a credible possibility”. “But it is a warning… we would have preferred if he had appointed Lucie Castets as head of government,” he added.
Several names have emerged as possible candidates, including right-wing Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier, right-wing former minister Xavier Bertrand and former Socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
Macron is hoping for a positive development after the successful games in Paris, after a poll on August 1 suggested that his popularity and that of interim Prime Minister Gabriel Attal had increased by two percentage points.
French political historian Jean Garrigues said he doubted Macron would see a boost at the Olympics and that any advantage the president would gain would be temporary. “The French tend to attribute the success of the Olympics to athletes and organizers like Tony Estanguet rather than politicians,” Garrigues told France24.
“This is quite telling of the rejection the president has faced in recent months. We are in a very tense political climate for which many blame him. As soon as reality sets in, he will once again find himself at the center of controversy and tension.”
Macron is under pressure to appoint a new prime minister before the opening of the Paralympics on August 28.
