France: No new government in sight

In France, there is no new government in sight after the parliamentary elections. After the defeat of President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp, the victorious left-wing coalition has so far been unable to agree on a candidate for prime minister or find other partners for a governing majority in parliament.

Efforts by the presidential camp to win over conservative Republicans, socialists or other partners to form a grand coalition or tolerate a minority government have so far yielded no results.

At a meeting with senior representatives of his camp at the Elysee Palace, Macron expressed his regret for the “catastrophic spectacle” presented by his camp this week, Le Figaro and Le Parisien newspapers reported, citing participants in the meeting.

The new left-wing coalition, made up of the Greens, the Socialists, the Communists and the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI), has been insisting for days that the president quickly appoint a new prime minister from among its ranks. However, the internal search for candidates remains difficult.

“We cannot reach an agreement between the proposals of France Insoumise and the Socialists,” Communist leader Fabien Roussel said, according to the Figaro newspaper. Both parties are seeking dominance in the left-wing coalition.

Founding meeting on Thursday

The newly elected National Assembly is due to meet for its constituent session on Thursday. If the former government camp cannot find a way to secure power through a coalition, Macron will still accept Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s resignation request, which was initially rejected “for the sake of the country’s stability,” Le Figaro and Le Parisien reported.

Attal is running today to head the government camp's parliamentary bloc in the National Assembly. The vote is a formality, as no other candidate is expected to compete alongside the 35-year-old. In his letter of request to MPs, seen by AFP, Attal does not mention Macron – and raises the possibility of addressing the mistakes of the president's camp and renaming the group from Ennahdha to Ensemble pour la Republique (Together for the Republic).