France’s summer break is ending – and the bitter fight to form a government is back

Paul MILLAR

21 August 2024 at 2:19 pm·1-min read

President Emmanuel Macron launches negotiations with different party leaders this Friday in a latest effort to bring an end to six weeks of political deadlock following snap legislative elections. Macron seems set on forging a broad coalition that would likely include his own defeated centre-right bloc – though whether he can successfully fracture the forces arrayed against him remains far from certain.

It’s been six weeks since French voters turned out in force to vote in the snap legislative elections called by President Emmanuel Macron and France still doesn’t have a government. Or rather, it has the same one – the same cabinet led by the same prime minister occupying a caretaker role despite resigning after a leftist alliance beat Macron’s coalition to win the most seats in parliament.

Since then, time has stood still. As the world’s eyes turned to Paris for the 2024 Summer Games, the president unilaterally declared an “Olympic truce”, saying he would make no decision on a new head of government until the last of the confetti had been swept out of the stadiums.

France has been in uncharted waters since the legislative elections, according to David Todd, professor of modern history at Sciences Po University in Paris.

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