- author, Christie Cooney
- Role, BBC News
French President Emmanuel Macron said he would not announce a new government until after the Paris Olympics.
This comes after the New Popular Front, a left-wing coalition that is the largest group in the French parliament after the last elections, nominated a little-known civil servant, Lucie Castets, as its candidate for prime minister.
In response to the proposal, Macron said that appointing a new minister before mid-August would “create chaos.”
Leftist politicians accused him of trying to “cancel the results of the legislative elections.”
The Olympic Games will kick off with an opening ceremony in central Paris next Friday and are scheduled to conclude on August 11.
Mr Macron accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal following heavy losses for his centrist party in parliamentary elections that ended earlier this month.
However, Mr Attal and his ministers agreed to remain in office as a caretaker government until replacements were appointed.
Under the French system, the president traditionally appoints a prime minister who is able to command a majority in the National Assembly.
No party now has a majority, but the National Progressive Front controls at least 182 of the 577 seats, putting it in the strongest position to put forward a candidate.
After weeks of negotiations, and just an hour before Macron was due to give a television interview, the group nominated Ms Castets on Tuesday, citing her record of defending public services.
Ms. Castets is a 37-year-old economist and civil servant who currently serves as director of finance and procurement for the city of Paris, but has no background in party politics.
This is an unusual choice, as the prime minister is usually a member of the National Assembly.
In an article on X, Ms. Castets said she accepted the nomination “with great humility but also with great conviction.”
But when Macron was asked about the Freedom and Justice Party’s proposal during an interview with the national public broadcaster France 2, he said: “That’s not the issue. The name is not the issue. The issue is: what majority can emerge in the assembly?”
“Of course we need to focus on the games until mid-August.
“Until mid-August, we will not be in a position to change things, because that would create chaos.”
He also said that no parliamentary bloc had succeeded in obtaining a majority in the elections, and that it was not yet certain which bloc would be in a position to appoint a prime minister.
He said he would seek to appoint a prime minister who had “the broadest possible support”.
Macron’s comments sparked angry reactions from some members of the French National Party.
Macron “must come out of denial,” said Marine Tondelaer, national secretary of the Ecologists party, one of the group’s constituent parties.
“We won, we have a programme, we have a prime minister,” she wrote on X.
“Our voters now expect the social justice and environmental justice measures they have demanded to be implemented.
“The president can’t stop them like that.”
Manuel Bompard, the national coordinator of France Insoumise, accused Macron of trying to “cancel the result of the legislative elections.”
“This is an intolerable denial of democracy,” he said. “In France there is no presidential veto when the people express their will.”
