President Macron’s Post-Election Statement

Expressing himself for the first time three days after deadlocked legislative elections, President Emmanuel Macron of France said on Wednesday that “a little time” would be needed to build a “broad gathering” of what he called “republican forces” able to form a coalition government.

Just 16 days from the opening of the Paris Olympics, it was unclear whether Mr. Macron had in mind a delay that would mean no new government was in place when the games begin. For now he has asked Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, whose resignation he rejected, to continue in a caretaker capacity.

In a letter to the French people, made public before its scheduled publication on Thursday in regional newspapers, Mr. Macron said of the election he abruptly called last month: “nobody won it.” That seemed certain to irk the New Popular Front, a resurgent left-wing alliance that came in first with about 180 seats in the National Assembly. The alliance was well short of the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority, and was not victorious in the sense of having the means to govern, but the New Popular Front’s leaders said they believed the group won and have said it would name its choice for prime minister this week.

The letter made clear that, if that happens, Mr. Macron is almost certain to reject the left’s choice, raising political tensions that are already high.

Under the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, the president names the prime minister, and there is no time limit for this choice. But up to now France has not had the culture of other European countries with parliamentary rather than presidential systems, like Italy or the Netherlands, where long negotiation on a coalition government and its agenda regularly occur.