AfriqueCAN:
French President Emmanuel Macron has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal’s government following their centrist party’s defeat in parliamentary elections.
However, Mr Attal and his ministers will continue to deal with day-to-day business as a caretaker government.
A left-wing alliance that won the 7 July election has so far been unable to agree on a potential candidate to replace him.
In a statement, the Élysée Palace said President Macron had called on “republican forces to work together” to form a new government.
This would exclude the far right National Rally (RN) and the radical left France Unbowed (LFI), which is part of the left-wing alliance that won the 7 July elections.
Mr Attal made no comment to journalists as he left his government’s final cabinet meeting at the Élysée Palace earlier on Tuesday, but President Macron is understood to have said the caretaker government could remain in place for “some weeks”.
According to French news agency AFP, Mr Attal told President Macron he would stay on out of a sense duty “until the very last minute” and “as long as you deem necessary, on the eve of major events for our country” – a remark widely interpreted as a reference to the Paris Olympics, which start in 10 days’ time.
The French prime minister had already handed in his resignation the day after his Ensemble alliance came second in the snap parliamentary vote called by President Macron.
National Rally (RN) won European elections in early June but then came third in the 7 July parliamentary vote.
As no party won an outright majority, Mr Macron asked Mr Attal to stay on for the time being and then called on mainstream parties to form a coalition with a “solid” majority.
Since its election victory, the left-wing alliance has been marred by infighting. Its two biggest parties, France Unbowed (LFI) and the Socialists, have both rejected each other’s candidates for prime minister.
On Monday, three of the NFP’s main parties – the Socialists, the Greens and the Communists – said they had agreed on former diplomat Laurence Tubiana as a nominee.
