Even before the president's "consultations" to appoint a prime minister began, the New York Times was already prophesying on July 8 that the outcome of the legislative vote would plunge France into a "muddle that could take months to sort out." Faced with a Parliament fragmented into three blocs, none of which has emerged as dominant, the respected American daily doubted that "painstaking negotiation" between France's "would-be Napoleons" would succeed in achieving an agreed agenda between parties with "widely differing" viewpoints.

Nearly two months – and no appointments – later, this prediction has been confirmed in the eyes of the Western press, which points the finger of blame at French President Emmanuel Macron. By refusing to accept the defeat of his camp, and by continuing his Jupiterian presidency when the result of the legislative elections should have required a change of policy, Macron has rendered France "ungovernable," they argue.

"On both sides, ideological stubbornness prevails," observed the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung at the end of August, deploring the absence of a "culture of compromise" on the other side of the Rhine. The conservative German daily believes this "political paralysis" is primarily attributable to the president, who "conducts consultations in an authoritarian manner." He "denies" the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance, despite it having come out on top in the legislative elections, "a leadership role in the negotiations."

In Belgium, where the search for a coalition is "a well-established habit," La Libre struck an astonished tone in an editorial: "Whether on TV sets or in newspaper columns, political "leaders" and observers talk of nothing but him [Emmanuel Macron]. But to stop there would be to forget that, in fact, French voters, by voting as they did in June, have shifted the center of gravity from the Elysée to party headquarters."

Parliamentary logic would have it that Macron should let go and leave it to the prime minister to create, and lead, his coalition. But in his stubborn "attempt to micromanage the formation of the next government," the head of state "gives the impression that he has not digested the implications of his election gamble," noted the Financial Times. "Macron is behaving as if there had been no election," wrote El Pais. The Spanish daily fears that this "unprecedented interim situation" in France will leave the European Union leaderless, at a time when the German far right is making historic inroads in certain regions.

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