Macron accused of ‘institutional failure’ by predecessor

President Macron’s predecessor, François Hollande, has accused him of “institutional failure” for his refusal to appoint a prime minister from the left-wing New Popular Front (NPF), which won the most seats in elections last month.
Hollande, 70, who launched Macron’s political career when he made him economy minister in 2014, blamed him for the crisis prompted by the elections, which ended with no party in parliament having a working majority.
Macron, 46, has refused to appoint Lucie Castets, the NPF’s prime ministerial candidate, saying she would be certain to lose a vote of no confidence. The NPF has fewer than 200 MPs, well short of an absolute majority of 289.
Hollande said Macron should nevertheless have appointed Castets, 37, to see whether she could woo MPs from other camps. “It is an institutional failure,” he said.
More than seven weeks after the elections, France is still being governed by Macron’s outgoing centrist cabinet in a caretaker role. However, the government is unable to perform such elementary tasks as announcing a budget for 2025, which is due to be put before parliament by the end of next month.
In an attempt to break the deadlock Macron has instead embarked upon a further round of talks with national and local politicians, seeking to find a prime minister capable of getting legislation through parliament.
The president has been hoping to nurture a coalition between his centrist camp and the centre-right Republicans. Laurent Wauquiez, 49, the de facto Republicans leader, was summoned for discussions with Macron at the Élysée Palace on Wednesday but said they had been “disappointing”.
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Wauquiez said Macron had “no new position, no veritable structured project, no vision of what would be a governmental programme for the months ahead”.
He urged Macron to “name a prime minister so that we end this political crisis he caused with the dissolution [of parliament]. There is no longer any reason now to procrastinate.”
The Republicans seem to have little appetite for a coalition with the unpopular Macron, especially since it would anyway lead to a minority government. They have been saying privately that he should appoint a moderate Socialist with cross-party support. Bernard Cazeneuve, 61, a former prime minister, and Didier Migaud, 72, the chairman of the higher authority for transparency in public life, are among the names being mentioned.
Both are viewed as solid and uncharismatic, which means that they are thought unlikely to steal the limelight from ambitious party leaders hoping to succeed Macron in 2027, when he is due to complete his second and final presidential term.
However, neither has the backing of the parties that make up the NPF, which include the Socialists and the radical France Unbowed.