Depression after euphoria: a phenomenon common after major events that cause mental uplift. The Paris Olympics, which ended last Sunday, caused, by all accounts, excitement among the French. Who are now called upon to manage the “grief” of the magic of the Games that has been lost and come back down to earth. A pedestrian and also worrying reality, because France has been walking for several weeks with a government under resignation.
The early parliamentary elections of July 7 announced by the president Emmanuel Macron they removed the ghost of its Far Right Marine Le Pen, which had been strengthened, as her party, the National Rally, was the first force in the European elections on June 9, but they did not give France a self-governing government.
In the run-up to the Olympics, two of the three major political blocs emerged in the French election, the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP), which came first with 195 seats, and Macron’s centrist Ensemble coalition (second with 168 seats), had begun contacts with each other to reach an agreement with the aim of securing a parliamentary majority (289 seats out of a total of 577).
A chance for a truce
The Olympic Games were an opportunity for a truce in the consultations and in the search for a person who could be appointed prime minister of a coalition government – an unprecedented event for the country. In France, the choice of the prime minister is the responsibility of the president of the republic. Macron therefore resumes from tomorrow the search for the person to whom he will entrust the formation of a government, a person who must be acceptable to both the left coalition and the centrist bloc – a difficult task, given the intense polarization in France.
According to “Monde”, Macron’s advisers would like the president to announce the name of the prime minister even within the week, in order to form a government that will work on the budget that must be ready by the end of September to be submitted to the National Assembly no later than the first Tuesday in October. In addition, France should, until September 20, present to the European Commission the plan for limiting its public deficit. All these deadlines require the formation of a government as soon as possible. According to others, however, there is not enough time for consultations between parties and parliamentary groups, which should further intensify their efforts for programmatic convergences.
Facing an impasse
«We spend a lot of time on the ‘casting’ for the person of the prime minister and not enough time on what the new government intends to do to prevent the country from falling into a political impasse” an outgoing government minister told “Monde”. Eg. The minister, who remains anonymous, stresses that Macron does not appear to be in any particular hurry to close the bracket “of the break from politics”which came about thanks to the Olympics – which the president used to his full advantage by never missing a photo opportunity with French medal-winning athletes.
What is certain is that the pressure on Macron to appoint a prime minister will start to increase from tomorrow. The left that won the elections is eager to see a prime minister from its ranks, as it considers it self-evident that as the first force of the elections it is entitled to the prime ministership and has proposed Lucy Castea 37-year-old economist with a brilliant resume, a senior civil servant managing the finances of the City of Paris.
However, Macron has in mind the creation of a government coalition as broad and stable as possible and a prime minister who will be “a well-known personality with deep knowledge of state affairs, respected by all forces of the democratic spectrum”. It remains to be seen whether this personality will be found soon.
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