French president starts meetings with political parties to discuss formation of new gov't

By Nur Asena Erturk

The French president on Friday started meeting with the political parties to discuss the formation of a new government, over six weeks after the second round of the snap parliamentary elections on July 7.

The country’s political process has stalled since President Emmanuel Macron postponed the nomination of a new prime minister and the formation of a new government due to the Paris Olympics that ended in mid-August.

The series of meetings started Friday at Elysee Presidential Palace in Paris, and will continue on Monday, according to the broadcaster BFMTV.

The meetings are expected to result in the nomination of a new prime minister, however, no strict date was yet set, the same source added.

The left-wing alliance New Popular Front (NFP) that secured most seats in the National Assembly -- the lower chamber of the French parliament -- is also expected to address media outlets at the end of the meeting.

Lucie Castets, NFP’s candidate for prime minister, told reporters ahead of the meeting that they came to “remind the president of the importance of respecting the election results.”

“We came to offer a solution for stability,” she added, noting that the NFP was ready to look out for “compromises in case of the absence of an absolute majority.”

Macron will later in the day meet with various parties from the centrist bloc, then the far-left, and finally on Monday, with Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella's far-right National Rally.

After weeks of struggle and even severe divisions within, the victorious left-wing alliance NFP proposed Castets as the next prime minister on July 23.

Macron, however, said he would not name a prime minister until the end of the games in mid-August, despite the effort.

He was also criticized for delaying the process and causing instability in the country by accepting outgoing Minister Gabriel Attal’s resignation on July 16, after initially rejecting it on July 8 right after the second round.

The NFP could win more than 180 seats in the lower chamber of the parliament. The centrist alliance Together for the Republic, which is backed by Macron, finished second with more than 160 seats, while Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen's National Rally (RN) party got over 140 seats despite ranking first in the first round on June 30.

The National Assembly has 577 seats, and none of the three primary alliances was able to win an absolute majority of 289 lawmakers.

Macron dissolved parliament and announced early elections after the RN won more than 31% of the vote in European Parliament elections on June 9, defeating his centrist bloc.