France celebrates national day as political crisis rumbles on

PARIS - France celebrated military victories of the past at its annual Bastille Day parade on July 14, while its present political future appeared far from clear.

President Emmanuel Macron inspected French and allied units which took part in France’s World War II liberation 80 years ago.

And Paris welcomed the Olympic flame to the city, less than two weeks before it hosts the Summer Games.

But behind the pomp – itself in a reduced format while Olympic preparations blocked the traditional Champs-Elysees route – France’s tense search for a government appeared to be at a stalemate.

All eyes were on Mr Macron, who in 2023 cut a more impressive figure, hosting rising superpower India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi as they watched France’s military might roll down the Champs-Elysees.

There was no international star guest in 2024, and there were no armoured vehicles as a reduced number of troops marched down the less majestic Avenue Foch.

July’s snap elections, called by Mr Macron to clarify France’s direction after the far right sent shockwaves through the political establishment by coming first in European Union polls, left the country without a parliamentary majority.

Government in limbo

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is hanging on as caretaker head of government, but the centrist Macron ally is now focusing on his own future, taking charge of his reduced party in Parliament.

Other figures are mobilising with an eye on the 2027 presidential race, but there is little sign of a ruling majority emerging from Parliament, split between three loose camps.

With government in limbo and Mr Macron barred by the Constitution from calling fresh elections for 12 months, far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen is eyeing the 2027 race with relish.

Meanwhile, first place in the elections was

claimed by a rapidly cobbled-together left-wing alliance,

the New Popular Front, which now has the most MPs but no clear candidate for prime minister.

Firebrand hardliner Jean-Luc Melenchon and his France Unbowed party (LFI) have alienated many even on the left, while the centre and right say they would not welcome his MPs into a coalition.

But LFI represents a large chunk of the New Popular Front (NFP) and, along with some greens and communists, had been touting Ms Huguette Bello, the 73-year-old former communist and president of the regional council on Reunion in the Indian Ocean, as premier.

But on July 14 she declined the role, saying that there was no consensus behind her candidacy, notably because of opposition from the centre-left Socialist Party, and that she wanted the NFP to agree to another name quickly.

The EU’s second-largest economy, a nuclear-armed Group of Seven power and permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, is thus rudderless, a troubling situation for markets and France’s allies alike.

Against this backdrop, the reduced and rerouted parade risks becoming a new symbol of drift, even with the addition of the arrival in Paris of the Olympic Torch, ahead of the July 26 to Aug 11 Games.

Olympic relay

No tanks or armoured vehicles took part, and only 4,000 foot soldiers marched, down from 6,500 in 2023. The military fly-past saw 45 aeroplanes and 22 helicopters soar over Paris.

Regiments honoured on the parade included those from France’s allies and former French colonies that took part in the country’s 1944 World War II liberation 80 years ago.

The parade’s final section turned to the upcoming Olympic Games.

Colonel Thibault Vallette of the elite Cadre Noir de Saumur cavalry school and 2016 equestrian gold medallist in Rio rode the torch down the route before relay runners carried it around the capital. AFP