French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday (July 23) his outgoing government will remain focused on the Olympic games in a caretaker role until mid-August, after which he will look to appoint a new prime minister, Reuters reports.
Macron’s comments come after France's leftist New Popular Front coalition, which won the largest number of seats in parliament in elections this month, said it will propose financial crime specialist Lucie Castets as its candidate for prime minister to Macron.
"Listen, I made this decision with confidence and with a lot of seriousness, because the National Assembly no longer resembled the French society. And after two years of having relative majority, we saw difficulties that were piling up, but most notably - let me remind everyone of this here because it seems like everyone has forgotten this - everyone was saying that in the fall, there would be a vote of no-confidence that would lead to the dissolution of parliament, meaning all while we are preparing the budget. And so it was like we were wanting to spend the period of the Games without worries and afterward, the political crisis was going to come. And so I did my duty," Macron stated.
Asked for comment about Castet’s candidacy, the president said the name of the prime minister mattered less that what majority he or she can obtain within the National Assembly.
Macron, in his first interview since elections in early July, acknowledged that his centrist party had lost the vote, but he declined to comment on a leftist front proposal for a new prime minister.
He ruled out resigning before his term ends.
