It’s a somewhat confusing situation – prime minister Gabriel Attal resigned a week ago and his resignation has been accepted, but on Tuesday evening Macron told a TV interviewer that he will not appoint a new government until after the Paris Olympics finish in mid-August.

So who’s running the country?

France’s snap parliamentary elections on June 30th and July 7th were intended to provide ‘clarity’ on the political situation – to say that that failed would be something of an understatement.

The elections produced a parliamentary deadlock with no party or group even close to gaining the 289 seats required for a majority – instead we have the leftist alliance Nouveau Front Populaire and its allies on 193, centrists including Emmanuel Macron’s party on 164 and the far-right Rassemblement National on 143.

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In the weeks since the election it seems that no party or group has managed to create the kind of alliance that would be needed to get a parliamentary majority, although talks are continuing behind closed doors.

What’s the latest

On Tuesday evening Macron gave a TV interview and said that he would not appoint a new government until after the Olympics finish, saying that stability was required during the Games – which officially begin on Friday and run until August 11th.

Shortly before his interview the left alliance announced that, after weeks of increasingly bad-tempered discussions, it had agreed on a candidate to propose as prime minister – an economist working in Paris local government named Lucie Castets.

The previous week, Macron had formally accepted the resignation of current prime minister Gabriel Attal and his government. But since there was no-one to take over, Macron immediately designated Attal as the head of a caretaker government.

This is intended as a temporary measure until some kind of coalition or alliance can be cobbled together in parliament – although it now seems that it will last until at least the middle of August.

So does France have a government?

Sort of – the caretaker government is in place but has very limited powers.

Meanwhile Emmanuel Macron remains as president since in France the president and the government are elected separately – his mandate lasts until 2027 and he has said that he will not resign. In France the president is the head of state and the nominal head of the armed forces, and has quite far-ranging powers over foreign policy.

Domestic policy, however, more usually falls to the prime minister and his/her government.

Attal remains in place as PM, and the ministers of the previous government also remain in post, albeit also in the ‘caretaker’ mode.

Parliament has reconvened and has held votes to elect positions such as the speaker of the house and the heads of the various parliamentary committees, which are voted on by MPs. These votes went ahead and produced a mixed picture – the left alliance Nouveau Front Populaire ended up taking 12 of the 22 available committee positions, but the centrist Yaël Braun-Pivet was re-elected as speaker.

And what powers does a caretaker government have?

In brief – limited ones. In French the system is known as a gouvernement d’affaires courantes (government of current affairs) and the idea is that it can react to events that require an immediate decision and keep day-to-day affairs running, but it cannot propose any new laws or set out a legislative programme.

The concept is not even mentioned in the current Constitution (which was largely designed to avoid this sort of thing. Not entirely successfully, we can now agree) however there is a Conseil d’Etat (state council) ruling on the powers of a caretaker government. The ruling was made during the chaotic days of the Fourth Republic, but legal experts seem to agree that it is still valid and forms the model for what happens next.

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“The government can, for example, issue decrees implementing laws. But it will not be able to initiate new reforms”, constitutional expert Mélody Mock-Gruet told Le Parisien.

“The government can, however, take decisions that are dictated by an imperative need,” she added. This would include things like a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

So it seems that the government can decide to implement laws that have been passed but not yet put into effect – such as the immigration bill which was passed in January. A decree was published on Tuesday bringing some parts of that into effect, but other sections (including French language tests for foreigners) currently have no start date.

The government can also declare a state of emergency, if required, and can pass emergency financial legislation such as a budget.

The Conseil d’Etat, remains the highest authority on government powers and it will ultimately fall to it to judge whether the caretaker government is exceeding its powers.

How long is this likely to go on for?

Macron has floated mid August as a changeover date, but in reality this will continue until some kind of alliance can be reached between parties.

At the time of writing there was no end in sight to the deadlock and the various political groups and factions seem to be more interested in fighting each other than building a coalition.

France has no tradition of coalition governments and such an arrangement has never happened since the start of the Fifth Republic in 1958, so it may take time for politicians to learn the art of alliance building.

There is no legal limit on the duration of a caretaker government.

It also seems likely that parliament would not be able to issue a motion of no confidence in a caretaker government since technically the motion de censure only calls on the prime minister to resign – which in this case he has already done.

Is it actually a problem not to have a government?

The concept of not having a government in place for weeks or months is not actually that uncommon for some countries in Europe – in countries that regularly have coalitions such as Germany, Sweden and Belgium most elections are followed by several weeks of coalition building before a government is announced.

Sometimes it goes on for longer – in 2016 Spain was without a government for 10 months (and its economy grew during that time), while Belgium had no government between December 2018 and October 2022 – a period of 615 days which broke Belgium’s previous record of 541 days without a government in 2010.

France does have a president in post, so it’s less of a problem to be without a PM, but what Spain and Belgium have in common is that many decisions are taken at a regional government level. France is much more centralised, so having a government is – sooner or later – essential.