Macron: New Government After Olympics

The French will have to wait until after the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, i.e. mid-August, to form a new government.

That’s what President Emmanuel Macron explained as he prepared for the opening of the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, which will run from July 26 to August 11. Speaking to France 2 TV, he explained that in the name of the required “truce,” appointing a new head before the end of the Games “would create a mess.” “Obviously until mid-August we have to focus on the Games. And then, depending on how those discussions go, it will be my responsibility to appoint a male or female prime minister and have him form a government and organize the largest assembly that will allow him to operate and provide stability.” Macron once again called for the responsibility of the parties and the need for compromise: “Today, I expect the political forces to match what they did between rounds.”

Meanwhile, the New Popular Front (NFP) has proposed that Macron nominate as prime minister 37-year-old Lucie Castets, “a high-ranking official involved in the defense of public services.” She is an economist, a graduate of the National School of Administration (ENA), a figure linked to associations and who is in sharp contrast to the policies of the outgoing government. A figure identified in the political group’s press release as “a leader in the associational struggle to protect and promote public services, actively engaged in the battle of ideas against retirement at 64.” A high-ranking official “who worked to combat tax fraud and financial crime.”

And Macron noted that “it is wrong to say that the New Popular Front has a majority, whatever it may be.” Given the outcome of the vote, “no one will be able to apply its program … It’s not a question of name. The question is what kind of majority can be obtained in the Assembly so that the French government can carry out reforms, pass a budget, and move the country forward.”