PARIS, 23 August 2024 (TDI): French President Emmanuel Macron has started a challenging round of consultations with political leaders, seeking to form a viable ruling coalition after last month’s inconclusive election.
Despite six weeks having passed since the snap election, in which Macron lost his parliamentary majority, he has yet to appoint a new prime minister. The primary task of the incoming prime minister will be to submit the budget plan for next year to the National Assembly.
The left-wing New Popular Front (NFP), which emerged as the largest faction after the election, has proposed economist Lucie Castets as the new premier. However, Macron’s camp has shown little interest in this proposal, favoring a potential alliance with the traditional right instead.
Lucie Castets, accompanied by other NFP representatives, will be the first political figure to meet with Macron at the Élysée Palace on Friday. However, Manuel Bompard, coordinator of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, emphasized that they do not intend to negotiate with Macron, insisting that there is no alternative to Castets’s appointment.
French President Emmanuel Macron began a round of thorny consultations with political leaders on Friday, hoping to cobble together a viable ruling coalition after last month’s inconclusive election.https://t.co/jSIu6wThW4
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 23, 2024
Allies of Macron argue that the leftist bloc is too weak to claim the prime minister’s position and are instead looking to build a majority around a centrist candidate. This period marks the longest that France has been without a government leader following a legislative election, with Macron postponing the task of finding one during the Paris Olympic Games, which concluded on August 11.
Currently, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is leading a caretaker government. Macron’s extended delay in appointing a prime minister has drawn criticism, with Green Party senator Yannick Jadot describing it as “a denial of democracy.” Even some of Macron’s allies are growing impatient.
An official from Macron’s office reassured that “the president is on the side of the French people, the guarantor of the institutions.” The consultations at the Élysée, scheduled for Friday and Monday, will include representatives from across the political spectrum. While Macron’s office has not indicated when a prime minister will be appointed, it is expected that he will make his decision sometime next week.
The appointed prime minister will need to survive a confidence vote in parliament and present a draft budget for 2025 by October 1, the legal deadline.
