It’s Only Been Weeks Since France’s Liberal President Cut A Deal With The Left — Things Already Aren’t Going Well

French President Emmanuel Macron denied the country’s left-wing New Popular Front (NPF) coalition a chance at forming a government on Tuesday, just weeks after striking a deal with the political bloc to ward off the right-wing National Rally party.

In a first interview shortly after, Macron turned down the idea of having a prime minister from the NPF as a potential candidate, saying the legislature needed “to do what all European democracies do, which is not in our tradition … to be able to make compromises,” according to Politico EU.

In a last ditch effort to put forth a candidate for prime minister, the NFP Paris city official, Lucie Castets, who Macron ultimately questioned, according to Politico EU.

“That’s not the topic. It’s not about a name given by a political party,” Macron said in his interview on France 2. “It’s about what majority can be built in the National Assembly so a French government is able to pass reforms, pass a budget and get France to move forward.”

As the French president would traditionally nominate a prime minister from the party with a majority of lawmakers in the National Assembly, the vote has left the government in a stand still, Politico EU reported.

Last week Macron’s prime minister, Gabriel Attal, resigned from his position following the country’s chaotic snap election, which resulted in Macron’s party losing the majority. Despite offering to step down after the election, Macron had insisted Attal stay in his position until July 16 as a flood of other cabinet members also handed in their resignations, according to Politico EU.

Following Macron’s comments Tuesday, Green leader Marine Tondelier called out the president as being “totally disconnect[ed] from reality.” Left-wing lawmaker Sandrine Rousseau also called out the president on X (formerly known as Twitter), saying “This is topsy-turvy, I don’t have the feeling [the far left] told us they would be voting bills with the far right.”

In early July’s snap election the NFP secured the most seats with 174, however, fell short of winning the parliament’s majority. The results left the National Rally party and Macron’s own party, the centrist-liberal Renaissance Party, with 141 seats and 145 seats, respectively.

Macron noted he would not be appointing someone into the position until mid-August, following the Olympic Games which are being hosted in Paris, according to Politico.