Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, rejected on Tuesday the efforts of a left-wing alliance to designate a new prime minister following early elections, stating that parties in a divided parliament must unite to form a broad coalition following the Olympic Games in Paris.
Macron said to network France 2 that “of course we need to be concentrated on the Games until mid-August.”
“It will be my duty to designate a prime minister and assign them the duty of forming a government, with the widest support conceivable,” he declared.
Macron shocked the country by dissolving parliament and holding early elections. The National Assembly, which is the lower house of parliament, was left with a hung parliament after the second round of voting on July 7.
With 193 seats, the left-wing NFP alliance defeated Macron’s centrists with 164 and the far-right National Rally (RN) and its partners with 143 to become the largest coalition.
Leftist parties, who considered themselves the winners with the most seats, have been at odds for weeks over a potential prime minister.
Just before Macron’s prime-time TV broadcast on Tuesday, they eventually agreed on Lucie Castets, a senior civil servant and little-known economist.
Castets, who works for the city government of Paris, is completely unknown to the general population.
The 37-year-old told AFP that she felt she was a “serious and credible candidate” for PM and that she had accepted the nomination “with great humility but also great conviction.”
Castets went on to say that she would prioritize “repealing the pension reform” and “major tax reform so everyone pays their fair share,” which were two of the policies that Macron pushed through last year and which caused a great deal of unrest and protests.
Macron must propose a new prime minister on his own.
Past presidents who witnessed the opposition seize control of parliament have approved prime minister nominees proposed by the newly elected majority.
However, any government in France must be able to withstand a vote of confidence in the legislature or face being dismissed right away.
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This creates uncertainty when no single group or coalition is able to seize control of the chamber.
“What majority can the Assembly achieve in order for a French government to enact reforms, approve a budget, and advance the nation?” Macron informed France 2.
Parties had to “step outside of their comfort zones and figure out compromises.” He went on, “It’s not a dirty word.”
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and his cabinet continue in their position as caretakers in the interim.
Leaders on the left swiftly criticized Macron’s stance.
The leader of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, said that the president “wants to impose his republican front on us by force,” alluding to a long-standing tactic in which the mainstream parties of France banded together to marginalize the far right.
On July 7, parties formed provisional coalitions in order to accomplish this goal and prevent the RN from gaining an outright majority.
However, Macron has consistently called for a broad governing coalition that would essentially exclude both the RN and LFI after the elections, classifying both parties as “extreme” in public speeches.
He believes that the center of gravity of the legislature should be moved farther to the right, and he has already made agreements with the weakened conservative Republicans party for important positions like the speaker’s chair.
The leader of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, claimed that Macron “is attempting a shameful misappropriation” of the election results.
“You accept the outcome when you call elections even though it can destabilize the situation. He stated, “The worst course of action that results in the worst kind of politics is denial.”
