After a deadlocked election, can anyone govern France?
The country is scrambling to find a new prime minister
A BLACK OFFICIAL car swept into the courtyard of the Elysée Palace on July 8th carrying Gabriel Attal, the 35-year-old French prime minister. He went to tender his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron, as tradition dictates after a parliamentary election. This time, however, the voting a day earlier had been so inconclusive that Mr Macron asked him to stay on in a caretaker role. France has no replacement government ready, and is not yet sure how to form one.
Other Europeans, with their fragmented parliaments, are used to dealing with unclear outcomes. Rival parties sit down together, manage their differences and hammer out a coalition deal, however long it takes. In Germany in 2021 it took 73 days, and a 166-page document, to form the current federal government. Belgium went for nearly two years before it forged a seven-party coalition government the previous year.
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A shock election result in France puts the left in the lead
But they are well short of a majority; uncertainty looms
Europe faces a new age of shrunken French influence
Sharing power will weaken the federalist president’s sway in Brussels
The EU should be the world’s heat-pump pioneer
But the union is falling behind in its efforts
A shock election result in France puts the left in the lead
But they are well short of a majority; uncertainty looms
Europe faces a new age of shrunken French influence
Sharing power will weaken the federalist president’s sway in Brussels
The EU should be the world’s heat-pump pioneer
But the union is falling behind in its efforts
Turkish tourists can now easily visit nearby Greek islands
A cheering sign of reduced tension in the eastern Mediterranean
Le Pen’s hard right looks set to dominate the French parliament
Even without a majority
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Children and wives have been apart from their fathers and husbands for more than two years