PARIS, July 17 – The French president has installed a caretaker government after accepting the resignation of the current prime minister, Gabriel Attal.
Attal will remain in post for now to head up the temporary administration, which will be in place in France for an indefinite period of time, but will remain throughout the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris, which officially begin on July 26.
Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that he wants the period that the caretaker government is in power to end “as quickly as possible.”
All the other current ministers will remain in their posts to handle current affairs until the appointment of a new government, which will likely be dominated by leftist politicians, after the left-wing New Popular Front won the greatest number of seats in the general election of June 30 and July 7.
In a statement, the Elysee Palace said “in order for this period to end… it is up to the Republican forces to work together to build a unity around projects and actions in the service of French people.”
The general election resulted in a hung parliament, with no one party securing a majority of lawmakers in the 577-seat National Assembly. The prime minister usually comes from the party with the most MPs, and Gabriel Attal has been serving as the premier since January since replacing Elisabeth Borne. Both of them represented Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party – but the next prime minister is likely to come from the left wing.
However, the four left-wing parties comprising the New Popular Front have so far failed to come to an agreement on who they will nominate to be the new prime minister.
They have agreed on the new speaker in parliament, who will also come from the left-wing, but they remain divided over who the new PM should be.
