ReutersFrench President Emmanuel Macron says he will not form a new government until after the Paris Olympics are over.
The move comes after the New Popular Front (NFP), a left-wing coalition that holds a majority in the French parliament after recent elections, nominated a little-known civil servant, Lucie Castets, as its candidate for prime minister.
Responding to the proposal, Mr Macron said a new appointment before mid-August would “cause chaos”.
Left-wing politicians have accused him of trying to “cancel the results of the legislative elections”.
The Olympics will get underway with an opening ceremony in central Paris on Friday and end on August 11.
Mr. Macron accept resignation of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal after heavy losses for their centrist party in parliamentary elections that ended earlier this month.
However, Mr Attal and his ministers agreed to maintain the form of an interim government until a replacement is in place.
Under the French system, the president typically appoints a prime minister who is likely to hold a majority of seats in the National Assembly.
No party currently has a majority, but the NFP controls at least 182 of the 577 seats, giving it the strongest position to field candidates.
On Tuesday, after weeks of negotiations and just an hour before Mr Macron was due to give a television interview, the group nominated Ms Castets, citing her record of protecting public services.
Ms Castets is a 37-year-old economist and civil servant who currently works as finance and procurement director for the City of Paris, but has no background in party politics.
This choice is quite unusual because the prime minister is usually a member of the National Assembly.
Writing on X, Ms Castets said she was “very humbled but also very confident” in accepting the nomination.
But when asked about the NFP proposal in an interview with national public broadcaster France 2, Mr Macron said: “This is not the problem. The name is not the problem. The problem is: What majority can emerge at the conference?
“Of course we need to focus on the Olympics until mid-August.
“Until mid-August, we cannot change the situation because that will cause chaos.”
He also said no parliamentary group won a majority in the election and it was still uncertain which group would be in a position to appoint the prime minister.
He said he would seek to appoint a prime minister with “the broadest possible support”.
Mr Macron’s comments sparked an angry reaction from some members of the NFP.
Marine Tondelier, national secretary of Ecologists, one of the group’s member parties, said Mr Macron “must abandon denial”.
“We won, we have a program, we have a prime minister,” she wrote on X.
“Our voters now expect the social justice and environmental justice measures they demand to be put into place.
“The president can’t stop them like this.”
Manuel Bompard, national coordinator of the Rebellious France organization, accused him of trying to “cancel the results of the legislative elections”.
“This is an intolerable denial of democracy,” he said. “In France, there is no presidential veto when the people express their will.”
