In France, the Attal government resigns, but will manage “current affairs”

Photo: Ludovic Marin Agence France-Presse Prime Minister Gabriel Attal leaves the Élysée Palace on Tuesday, after the first Council of Ministers since the legislative elections.

France Media Agency in Paris

Posted at 9:21 a.m. Updated at 12:33 p.m.

• Europe

The French head of state Emmanuel Macron accepted the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, after his failure to obtain a majority for the presidential camp in the early legislative elections, the presidency announced in a press release.

This government will ensure “handling of current affairs until the appointment of a new government”, announced the Élysée, while France is hosting the Olympic Games in the coming weeks and a coalition is struggling to be put in place.

“In order for this period to end as quickly as possible, it is up to the Republican forces to work together to build a unity,” affirmed the French presidency.

Around President Macron, the government had previously held its first Council of Ministers at the end of the morning at the Élysée since the early legislative elections, called by the head of state after the bitter failure of his party in the European elections at the beginning of June.

In the legislative elections, the left-wing coalition of the New Popular Front (NFP) won the largest number of seats but it did not obtain an absolute majority in the National Assembly, now divided into three blocs: the NFP (190 to 195 seats), followed by the center-right presidential camp (around 160 seats), and the far right and its allies (143 seats).

M. Macron suggested Tuesday in the Council of Ministers that this situation of a resigned government – and therefore with a political role limited at a minimum – could “last for a certain time”, “a few weeks”, probably until the end of the Olympics at least, according to the participants interviewed by AFP.

This new configuration would ensure “in the name of continuity, the minimal functioning of the French State”, explains a note from the General Secretariat of the Government (SGG) dated July 2.

On Tuesday, Mr Macron thanked the ministers. Gabriel Attal, for his part, spoke of his “recognition” for the members of the government and for the head of state, of his “passion for France” and of his “duty”, “including in the particular period that we let's cross,” reported a minister.

“There were neither tensions nor outpourings,” explained another participant, despite the now blatant differences between the two heads of the executive since the dissolution of the Assembly and the anticipated legislative elections.

This resignation allows in particular the members of the government elected deputies to regain their parliamentary mandate to participate in the election for the presidency of the National Assembly on Thursday, a highly strategic position nicknamed the perch for which negotiations are going well.

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The divided left

This transitional period also offers a little time to the different political groups to try to build compromise and bring about alliances.

The presidential camp is trying to build an alternative majority to the left: once again, eyes are turning towards the right-wing party Les Républicains and their forty deputies.

Emmanuel Macron estimated Tuesday in the Council of Ministers that his camp should “put a proposal on the table with a view to a majority coalition or a broad legislative pact,” reported a participant.

On the left, discussions to submit a candidate for the post of prime minister continue to become tense, with the leader of La France insoumise (LFI — radical left) Jean-Luc Mélenchon having refused to pursue them as long as a common candidate for the perch has not been found.

Socialists, communists and ecologists returned to the charge on Monday evening by suggesting climate specialist Laurence Tubiana for Matignon , 73 years old, who defines herself as a “woman of the left and environmentalist”.

But this option was swept aside by LFI, the coordinator of the movement Manuel Bompard considering the proposal “ not serious.”

At the heart of the political vagueness, one thing is certain for the future French government: it will recover public finances in the red.

In a thick report presented on Monday, the Court of The accounts provide a worrying picture, as France's debt rose to almost 3,160 billion euros at the end of March (or nearly 111% of GDP, compared to 60% according to European criteria). The need to reduce this debt is an “imperative” which “must be shared” by all political forces, warned the president of the Court of Auditors Pierre Moscovici.