BERLIN – No matter how elegant the performance of a country’s leader on the world stage, domestic instability still diminishes its global influence.

French President Emmanuel Macron has shown he is one of Europe’s most decisive and vibrant leaders, but his inability to find a government that can deal with spiraling debt and political division is undercutting his credibility as an international actor of consequence.

Mr Macron, deeply unpopular at home, is seeking to form a sixth government in the past 21 months, still hoping to

find a prime minister

who can cobble together support in a parliament split at least three ways, with no faction able to command a stable majority.

After a long day of negotiations on Oct 10 with party leaders, Mr Macron announced that he had

asked Sébastian Lecornu

, who had resigned on Oct 6, to try yet again.

“Domestic instability undermines credibility even if foreign-policy competence lies with the president,” said Mr Daniela Schwarzer, an expert in Franco-German relations and a member of the executive board of the Bertelsmann Foundation, a nonprofit institute. “Because as soon as it’s about money, it depends on the parliament and on the budget,” over which Mr Macron has no direct control, she said.

A paralysed Paris erodes Europe’s strategic weight and ability to make decisions, especially on rearmament. Mr Macron may promise more money for the military in any new French budget, as he did this summer, but it is France’s parliament that controls the funds, making his efforts to respond to a newly aggressive Russia seem hollow.

“Without a government...