Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday refused to accept the resignation of the country’s prime minister and asked him to stay on as caretaker head of his government after a chaotic election result left his government in limbo.
French voters split parliament between the left, center and far right, leaving no faction approaching the majority needed to form a government, and Sunday’s result raised the risk of paralysis in the European Union’s second-largest economy.
President Emmanuel Macron gambled that the decision to call early elections would give France an “opportunity to clarify the situation”, but the result has been the opposite, at a time when the country will be on the world stage less than three weeks before the start of the Paris Olympics.
France’s main stock index opened lower but quickly recovered, possibly as markets feared an outright victory for either the far-right or left-wing coalition.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced his resignation on Monday morning, despite having said he would stay on if needed. President Macron, who appointed him as prime minister just seven months ago, immediately asked him to stay on “to ensure the stability of the country.”
Attal made clear on Sunday that he opposed Macron’s sudden decision to call elections, after two rounds of voting left the path to forming a government unclear for either the initially elected left-wing coalition, Macron’s centrist bloc or the far-right.
