French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday refused to accept the resignation of his prime minister, asking him to deal with current affairs in the wake of legislative elections that brought the left to the forefront of the country’s political forces, but without an absolute majority.
Gabriel Attal arrived at the Élysée Palace late in the morning to offer his resignation, in accordance with Republican tradition. But Mr Macron asked him to stay in office in order to “ensure the stability of the country”, according to the Élysée Palace, while Paris is hosting the Olympic Games in less than three weeks.
After the surprise of the legislative elections, where the surge of the extreme right was clearly slowed, France is looking for a parliamentary majority before appointing a personality capable of uniting and leading a government.
A headache since neither the New Popular Front (NFP, left, around 190 seats), nor the presidential camp (around 160 seats), nor the RN and its allies (extreme right, more than 140 seats) can achieve, alone, an absolute majority (289 deputies).
Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire warned of a risk of “financial crisis” and “economic decline”. But with the spectre of the extreme right averted, the Paris Stock Exchange reacted weakly. The CAC 40 index opened down 0.49%, but returned to positive territory a few hours later.
The left, for its part, has launched the major maneuvers. “We must be able to present a candidate for Matignon within the week,” declared the leader of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure, suggesting either a consensus or a vote.
The leader of the environmentalists, Marine Tondelier, considered for her part that the head of state “should call today” the NFP to submit a name to him.
However, the left-wing alliance, hastily put together the day after Emmanuel Macron dissolved the National Assembly, brings together forces that disagree on many points, between the radical left of La France Insoumise (LFI), the socialists, the communists and the environmentalists.
The Mélenchon file
As has been the case for weeks, it is the radical left that is crystallizing tensions, in particular its charismatic and provocative leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, considered a deterrent even within his own camp.
His case continues to occupy the forefront. On Sunday, LFI Clémentine Autain had called on left-wing deputies to meet on Monday “in plenary assembly” to propose to the president a prime minister who is neither François Hollande, former socialist president elected deputy, nor Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
But LFI leader Mathilde Panot said on Monday that the latter, 72, “was absolutely not disqualified”, arguing that he was “the one who taught the left to win again, the one who gave hope to millions of people by winning 22% in the presidential election” of 2022.
At the same time, discussions are also multiplying within the presidential majority, which has become the second national force at the cost of a resilience that no one attributed to it after the first round.
The vote “has not delivered its verdict on the distribution of forces” and “the landscape is not yet clear,” said François Bayrou, the centrist leader allied to Macron. “Let’s give ourselves three days to see who gathers the most parliamentary seats,” he advocated, considering a majority possible without LFI.
Moscow “without illusions”
As for the RN, it has progressed like never before in Parliament but finished far from the relative majority promised by the polls, and even more from the absolute majority dreamed of.
“Our victory is only delayed,” reacted the leader of the extreme right, Marine Le Pen, when the candidate for Matignon Jordan Bardella castigated the “alliance of dishonor” of the republican front formed against his camp.
The RN is the only force guaranteed to be in opposition on Monday, but with a stronger voice than in the outgoing assembly.
Its leaders were keeping a low profile on Monday, forced to accept that a majority of French people do not want the far right in power, and that the glass ceiling they had hoped to break was stronger than expected.
On Sunday evening, thousands of people gathered at Place de la République in Paris to celebrate his defeat in a joyful atmosphere of fireworks, cheers and explosions of joy.
Abroad, where the French political saga has been widely followed for weeks, the Polish and Spanish prime ministers welcomed the defeat of the extreme right in one of the pillars of the European Union. The German government expressed a “certain relief”.
As for the Kremlin, known to be close to the RN, it indicated that it had neither “hope” nor “illusion” of an improvement in its relations with Paris.