Macron slaps back at left’s bid to govern France – POLITICO

But Macron’s decision to postpone appointing a new government further angered his rivals on the left. “Emmanuel Macron is locking everything until mid-August so that he won’t have to admit we arrived first,” left-wing lawmaker Sandrine Rousseau wrote on X.

For his part, Macron slammed the far left’s decision to table a bill to repeal his flagship pensions reform with the support of Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally. “This is topsy-turvy, I don’t have the feeling [the far left] told us they would be voting bills with the far right,” he said.

Playing the long game

During the interview, in a studio overlooking the Eiffel Tower, Macron expressed no regrets about calling a snap election following his party’s defeat in the June European election. The French president’s gamble, which took everyone — including his own prime minister — by surprise, further weakened him as France welcomes the world to the Games.

“I took this decision with awareness, because the National Assembly no longer looked like French society … and because everyone was saying there would be a vote of no confidence in the autumn during the budget,” he said.

As for the future, Macron didn’t say what kind of coalition he had in mind, but flagged immigration and security — two core issues for conservatives — as needing to be addressed. Such comments are likely to relaunch speculation that Macron’s liberals seek an alliance with the conservatives to govern France.

Macron won a key battle last week when a cross-party compromise was reached with the Republican Right political group, which was created after some conservatives joined the far right, to reelect centrist Yaël Braun-Pivet as president of the National Assembly.