Welcome to the prime minister circus. Two months after the second round of legislative elections, marked by the highest turnout in 30 years, President Emmanuel Macron is still unable to draw the lessons from the outcome of the vote, with his endless consultations turning into a vaudeville. Against a backdrop of political leaders shuffling in and out of the Elysée Palace, with leaks and feints to test various names, the odds for who will be the next prime minister are quick to change, in a distressing pendulum swing.

One day, it was François Hollande's former prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve who seemed to have the upper hand. His name and "center-left" positioning were put forward as self-evident, last week, by the palace's advisers. Another day, it was the right-wing president of the northern Hauts-de-France region, Xavier Bertrand, who looked like the favorite. Between the two, the name of a figure completely unknown to the French public – the president of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, Thierry Beaudet – emerged, before immediately deflating. Eenie meenie miney mo.

"Macron tests a name a day!" read a chyron on the 24-hour news channel BFM-TV on Tuesday, September 3. The unusual exclamation mark underlined the surreal feeling of the moment.

And while commentators chuckled, more or less discreetly, on air, humorists and critics of all stripes are having a field day. On Sunday, with the announcement of further consultations at the Elysée, a former adviser to Hollande, Gaspard Gantzer, joked on X: "On Tuesday, he'll receive all the former prime ministers since 1981. Wednesday, the Césars for Best Actor since 1977. On Thursday, the winners of the Tour de France since 1958..." As for Ziad Gebran, a former adviser to Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu now with the insurer Axa, he appealed, Tuesday on X, to the divinatory talents of Paul the Octopus.

Throughout the summer, Macron played with the small world of politics like a cat with mice, throwing the yarn ball sometimes to the right, sometimes to the left, or even to the center (with the "technical" option). "I've had a good look at those who've been walking around this summer," he quipped to Bruno Retailleau, head of the right-wing Les Républicains senators. Those close to the president use the image of a funnel to describe the "decanting" process, which is supposed to narrow down the field of possibilities. But it's he himself who's taking charge of the process. And the longer he waits, the more overwhelmed he appears to be.

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