French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal resigned on July 16. President Emmanuel Macron accepted Attal’s resignation, but asked him to remain in post as a caretaker until a new candidate to lead the government was agreed on.

Attal is still the tenant at the Hotel Matignon, the prime minister’s official residence, and is now the longest serving caretaker in French politics.

Elections were held for the European Parliament on June 9, and parties of the populist, anti-immigration right performed well. Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland, the Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy party and the Party for Freedom in the Netherlands all increased their representation.

In France, the right-wing National Rally topped the poll to win 30 of the country’s 81 EU seats, while Macron’s liberal Ensemble coalition lost nearly half its representatives. More than one-third of French voters had embraced the nationalist right represented not only by the National Rally but also by Reconquête.

Macron took this as a personal affront, and declared that he would dissolve the National Assembly and hold legislative elections at the end of June and beginning of July. The results made three things clear. First, although the National Rally had not polled as well as some had expected, it made significant gains. With its smaller allies, it mustered 142 seats out of 577. Second, Ensemble lost nearly 90 seats and ended up with 159. Third, there was an unexpected surge by a........

© The Hill