PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron refused to accept his Prime Minister’s resignation and met with opposition leaders on Tuesday as he sought a way out of a political predicament after losing his parliamentary majority.
Disaffected voters angry over spiraling inflation and Macron’s perceived indifference towards hard-up families delivered a hung parliament in Sunday’s election, leaving the president’s centrist alliance several dozen seats short of a ruling majority.
It means his centrist Ensemble bloc will need to find support from among the opposition benches in order to salvage his reform agenda.
Macron’s opponents said it was time he learned to listen to others and that support would come at a cost. Christian Jacob, leader of the conservative Les Republicains, said Macron had been “arrogant” during his first term.
“We’re not going to betray those who showed faith in us. Those who voted for us did not do so so that we enter with little thought into any old coalition,” Jacob told reporters. Jacob made his remarks after holding an hour-long meeting with Macron. Les Republicains provide the most obvious place for Macron to find support. The conservatives’ economic platform is largely compatible with Macron’s, including his plans to raise the retirement age by three years to 65.
However, the conservatives, whose past presidents include Nicolas Sarkozy and Jacques Chirac, have so far ruled out a formal German-style coalition pact.
Even so, Jacob said his party would be “responsible” and would not “block the institutions”, seemingly opening the door to cooperation on a bill-by-bill basis. –Agencies
