The images of this year's Bastille Day parade, on July 14th, are likely to confuse the French. This is not only because the ceremony will be held on Avenue Foch in Paris instead of the Champs-Elysées, due to the Olympic Games, but also because the government of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal could be seated around Emmanuel Macron in the presidential grandstand, seven days after the presidential camp's defeat in the legislative elections.
By refusing to accept the resignation of his prime minister on Monday, July 8, on the pretext of "ensuring the stability of the country," the president has allowed the current government to retain its full powers and responsibilities. Far from having to only take care of day-to-day matters, "the government retains significant leeway [for managing the country]," pointed out Julien Boudon, professor of public law at Paris-Saclay University, in an interview with Le Monde. It can still appoint prefects and other senior civil servants, initiate new spending, pass an unemployment insurance reform by decree, amend a regulation and launch a plan, as if it still had a majority in the Assemblée Nationale.
"My minister continues to act as if nothing had happened," said an adviser to a member of the government. Meanwhile, the Conseil d'Etat, the country's highest administrative court, is still reviewing bills, and a look at the French government's bulletin since July 8 shows that the administrative machine is running at full speed.
Attal announced on the steps of the prime minister's residence on Sunday evening that he would tender in his resignation the following day without ruling out the possibility of continuing his work "as long as duty requires it," in line with "republican tradition." However, his letter of resignation is not legally binding, and the president has not yet issued the decree to officially end his duties. Macron said he wanted the prime minister to remain at the head of the government "for the moment," and that he wanted to wait until the new Assemblée was "structured" before "taking the necessary decisions."
In a press release published on July 9, the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) alliance "solemnly" warned Macron against "any attempt to hijack the institutions" by keeping Attal as prime minister for an extended period of time. The four left-wing parties that makeup this political alliance see this as an "attempt to erase Sunday's result." "If it were merely a roundabout way of not proposing a Nouveau Front Populaire figure as prime minister, it would be democratically unacceptable," warn the Socialists, the radical left La France Insoumise (LFI), the Greens and the Communists. "The president of the Republic, he's the one blocking the situation today, to keep power as long as possible," LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon said on Tuesday, upon arriving at the Assemblée Nationale.
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