France celebrates national day as political crisis rumbles on

PARIS

France did not know where its government was headed yesterday as the armed forces also took an unusual detour at the start of their annual Bastille Day march.

Preparations to host the Olympic Games blocked the national day parade from its traditional route on the Champs Elysees, and a smaller military contingent instead marched on the nearby Avenue Foch, one of the most prestigious streets in Paris and one of the most expensive addresses in the world.

This was not the only unusual feature of the event: France was also without a government, less than two weeks before the Games.

All eyes was on the host, President Emmanuel Macron, who last year cut a more impressive figure, hosting rising superpower India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi at France's triumphant national day parade.

But, with the Olympics just around the corner, France had no international star guest for this year's parade, and French political leaders' minds were elsewhere, pondering the power vacuum.

This month's snap elections, called by Macron to clarify France's direction after the far right sent shockwaves through the political establishment by coming first in European polls, left the country without a ruling minority.

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 mobilizing 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.

The European Union's second largest economy, a nuclear-armed G7 power and permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, is thus rudderless, a troubling situation for markets and France's allies alike.