Macron rejects the resignation of Prime Minister Attal

2024-07-08 17:58:30, Kosova & Bota CNA

Macron rejects the resignation of Prime Minister Attal

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and President Emmanuel Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron rejected the prime minister's resignation, asking him to stay on as head of government on an interim basis following election results that risk plunging the country into a political crisis. French voters split the legislature into three political groups, giving none the majority needed to form a new government. Analysts, however, agree that the biggest loser of these elections is President Emmanuel Macron, whose party lost about 100 seats in the National Assembly.

President Emmanuel Macron called the election as a counter-reaction to the far-right's landslide victory in the European Parliament elections. The results of the parliamentary elections, however, created political uncertainty for France. The parliament is now divided into three groups, the left that came first, the center group of President Macron and the extreme right.

According to official results published on Monday morning, none of the three main blocs managed to secure the necessary majority of 289 seats in the 577-member National Assembly.

"Staying loyal to the republican tradition, I will submit my resignation to the President of the Republic", Prime Minister Attal said on Sunday.

After the meeting that lasted about an hour and a half at the Presidential Palace, President Macron rejected the resignation of the Prime Minister "to ensure the stability of the country".

This prompted the reaction of the leftist group New People's Front composed of communists, Greens and socialists, which secured the largest number of votes. While they gathered on Monday at the party headquarters, they say that the proposal of the name of the new Prime Minister belongs to them.

"In a democratic framework, when a political bloc presides in the elections, President Emmanuel Macron must reform the government. The prime minister must be from the ranks of the New Popular Front. Give us some time to propose a name. This is a necessity, as we see an anti-democratic effort coming from the president", said the lawmaker of the New Popular Front in the European Parliament, Manon Aubry.

Leaders across Europe reacted with relief, but also with concern that an unstable coalition could pose challenges to European politics.

The government in Germany, which along with France has long been seen as the engine of European integration, expressed relief that the far right did not win.

However, the French president has been weakened by Sunday's vote and this will have consequences for Germany and all of Europe, says Ronja Kempin, an analyst of Franco-German relations at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

"For German-French relations, the result of last night's elections is first of all very good news. The right-wing National Union party failed to win a majority in France/ I think Germany will have to adapt to the new power in France though. We have a weakened president who can no longer act as freely as he has for the past seven years," says Ms Kempin.

French political analyst and deputy executive director at the 'Ipsos' organization Brice Teinturier also agrees with this position.

"The big loser is Emmanuel Macron. In this election, we have to compare things not in relation to the polls, but to the 2022 elections. At that time, the President had a relative majority. Today, the President has 94 deputies less. So, the decline is colossal," says Mr. Teinturier.

Analysts in France are concerned that the plans of the left, which came out on top in this election, could dilute President Emmanuel Macron's pro-market reforms.

"The New People's Front Alliance has come up with an economic program that will cost around 150 billion euros. This plan has been offered to a country that actually has to make budget cuts and this represents a risk for the European Union, because France is very economically large enough to slide into a debt crisis," says German analyst Ronja Kempin.

President Macron has three years left in his presidential term.

The political deadlock could have far-reaching implications for the war in Ukraine, global diplomacy and Europe's economic stability.

Unlike other countries in Europe that are more accustomed to coalition governments, France does not have a tradition of lawmakers from rival political camps coming together to form a majority. France is also more centralized than many other European countries, with many more decisions made in Paris./ VOA