Emmanuel Macron has further delayed the appointment of France's next prime minister. After separate consultations with various political parties on Monday, December 9, the French president decided to invite parties' parliamentary leaders to sit around the same table on Tuesday afternoon, "adopting a logic of compromise," in order to "form a government of general interest."
For the first time, the leading figures of most of the political parties represented in Parliament have all been invited to the Elysée together. This configuration is reminiscent of the "Saint-Denis meetings" Macron held in 2023, spending 12 hours behind closed doors with party leaders to discuss future policy. But this time, "the far right and the far left," respectively the Rassemblement National (RN) and La France Insoumise (LFI), were not invited, because, according to the president, they "united in an anti-republican front" by voting for the December 4 no-confidence motion that toppled Prime Minister Michel Barnier. Their representatives "have not entered into a logic of compromise," explained a source close to the president.
The Socialists, Greens and Communists, who also voted to topple the Barnier government, have, on the other hand, "shown their goodwill" since December 4, said the same source. "We're not going to slam the door in their faces." In particular, Socialist leader Olivier Faure said on Friday that he was ready to make "concessions" and hold talks with the presidential bloc and the right-wing Les Républicains (LR) party.
But the Socialists had not expected such a meeting with the other parties. The idea seems to have only very recently taken shape at the Elysée. As for the aim of this unprecedented gathering, a source at the Elysée explained that it is "to reach agreement on a method" for making progress in forming a new government. "Emmanuel Macron is holding a meeting to lay down a form of framework, and, then, he steps aside to let us do our thing," said the Greens' leader Marine Tondelier on Franceinfo on Monday, suggesting that the president would be content to provide the initial impetus.
In his "Letter to the French" on July 10, shortly after the parliamentary elections, Macron had asked "all political forces (...) to engage in sincere and loyal dialogue to build a solid majority, necessarily plural, for the country." His invitation never came to fruition. This time, the president took the initiative of bringing them together in the hope of forming a government that would have "reasonable stability," according to a source in his entourage.
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