Updated 1 hour ago
French President Emmanuel Macron has said he will not form a new government until after the Paris Olympics.
He rejected an attempt by a left-wing coalition to field little-known civil servant Lucy Castets as its candidate for prime minister. The New Popular Front won most of the seats in parliamentary elections this month but fell short of a majority.
“We cannot change the situation until mid-August because it would create chaos,” Macron said ahead of an opening ceremony in central Paris on Friday.
Mr. Caste asked him to accept responsibility and nominate her.
Left-wing politicians accused him of trying to “annul the results of the parliamentary elections.”
Macron’s centrist coalition suffered a major defeat in the elections, but he has asked Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and his cabinet to stay on as a caretaker government until a successor is appointed.
The interview on French television and radio on Tuesday night was his first since his election defeat.
In the French system, the president traditionally appoints the prime minister who can secure a majority of seats in the National Assembly.
No party currently has a majority, but the four-party NFP controls at least 182 of the 577 seats, putting it in the best position to field candidates, ahead of Macron’s ensemble and the far-right National Rally.
An hour before Mr Macron was due to appear on television, the left endorsed Mr Castets as their unity candidate, citing his record of championing public services.
Castets, 37, is an economist and civil servant who currently works as finance and purchasing director for the city of Paris but has no experience in party politics. France’s prime minister is usually a member of parliament.
The decision to reveal her name just before the president’s television appearance was seen as an attempt to surprise Macron and apply political pressure.
Writing for X, Caste said he accepted the nomination “with great humility, but with great conviction.”
But when asked about the NFP proposal in an interview with state broadcaster France 2, Macron said: “This is not the issue. The name is not the issue. The issue is which party can form a majority in parliament.”
He also said no parliamentary group won a majority in the elections and it was not yet clear which group would be in a position to appoint the prime minister.
He said he would aim to appoint a prime minister who has the “broadest possible support”.
Macron’s comments sparked angry reactions from some members of the NFP.
Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the Ecologists, one of the group’s component parties, said Macron must “move out of denial”.
“We have won. We have a plan. We have a prime minister,” she wrote to X.
“Our voters now expect the social justice and environmental justice measures they asked for to be implemented.
“The president can’t stop them like this.”
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the radical leftist leader of Unyielding France, accused the president of refusing to accept the election results and trying to impose a mainstream republican stance.
“This is out of the question. Respect the vote of the French people. He must either accept it or resign!”
The League’s other two parties, the Communist and Socialist parties, were similarly infuriated. Socialist leader Olivier Faure said that although no party has an absolute majority, Macron should respect the republic’s traditions and appoint Lucy Castets as prime minister.
Castets made his first appearance on French radio on Wednesday, where he was asked about his performance beyond 2023 as finance chief for Paris, where debt is predicted to rise to 9 billion euros (7.5 billion pounds) by 2026.
“The debt of the city of Paris and the debt of the French state have nothing in common,” she argued. “I am proud to have been involved in financing very long-term projects that improve people’s lives, the lives of Parisians, especially with regard to environmental issues.”
Rally National MP Sébastien Chenut said the Left’s decision to choose her was a sick joke, and said her slogan would be “I ruined Paris, now I can ruin France”.
