French President Macron Delays New Government Formation Until After Paris Olympics

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that he will not name a new government until after the conclusion of the Paris Olympics. This decision follows the New Popular Front (NFP), a left-wing coalition that now constitutes the largest group in France's parliament after recent elections, putting forward Lucie Castets, a relatively unknown civil servant, as a candidate for prime minister.

In response to the proposal, Macron stated that making a new appointment before mid-August would "create disorder." Left-wing politicians have accused him of attempting to "cancel the result of the legislative elections."

The Olympics will commence with an opening ceremony in central Paris on Friday and will conclude on August 11.

Macron accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal after significant losses for their centrist party in the parliamentary elections that concluded at the beginning of this month. Despite this, Attal and his ministers have agreed to stay on as a caretaker government until replacements can be appointed.

Under the French system, the president traditionally appoints a prime minister who can command a majority in the National Assembly. Currently, no party holds a majority, but the NFP controls at least 182 of the 577 seats, positioning it strongly to propose a candidate.

On Tuesday, after weeks of negotiations and just an hour before Macron was due to give a television interview, the group proposed Castets, citing her track record of defending public services. Castets, a 37-year-old economist and civil servant, currently serves as the director of finance and purchasing for the City of Paris but has no background in party politics. Typically, the prime minister is a serving member of the National Assembly.

Writing on X, Castets expressed her acceptance of the nomination "with great humility but also great conviction."

During an interview with the national public broadcaster France 2, Macron responded to the NFP's proposal, stating, "This is not the issue. The name is not the issue. The issue is: Which majority can emerge at the assembly? Of course, we need to be concentrated on the Games until mid-August. Until mid-August, we're in no position to change things, because it would create disorder."

He also noted that no parliamentary group had emerged from the elections with a majority and that it was still uncertain which group would be in a position to appoint a prime minister. Macron emphasized his aim to appoint a prime minister with the "broadest backing possible."

Macron's comments provoked an angry reaction from some NFP members. Marine Tondelier, national secretary of The Ecologists, one of the constituent parties of the group, stated that Macron "must come out of denial." Tondelier wrote on X, "We won, we have a program, we have a prime minister. Our voters now expect the social justice and environmental justice measures they asked for to be put into practice. The president can’t block them like this."

Manuel Bompard, national coordinator of France Unbowed, accused Macron of trying to "cancel the result of the legislative elections." He declared, "This is an unbearable denial of democracy. In France, there is no presidential veto when the people express their will.