President Emmanuel Macron on Friday, December 6, was holding talks with French political leaders on the left and right as he seeks to name a new prime minister and find a way out of France's political crisis.
Macron was to meet leaders of the parliamentary factions of his own centrist forces, the Socialists and the right-wing Les Républicains to continue the search for a compromise, presidential sources said. The hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) and far-right Rassemblement National (RN) have not been invited to talks at this stage.
The president, who has long hoped to split the traditional Socialists from their pact with the LFI, received a boost when Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said he was ready to negotiate with the centrists and the right. Faure, who met Macron in the afternoon, told Franceinfo radio there should be "reciprocal concessions" from all sides to form a new government and that he was ready for "compromise on all subjects."
But in a sign of how tough the road ahead could be, right-wing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said the right would "make no compromise" with the left, which he accused of betraying its principles in its pact with the LFI.
Macron adopted a defiant tone in an address to the nation late Thursday, 24 hours after Prime Minister Michel Barnier's government was ousted in a historic no-confidence vote. Macron vowed to name a new prime minister in the "coming days," rejected growing pressure from the opposition to resign and blamed an "anti-republican front" of the hard left and far right for France's woes.
Barnier – the French Fifth Republic's shortest-serving premier – resigned after Wednesday's parliamentary defeat in a standoff over the budget forced his government to step down, the first such toppling of a French administration in more than 60 years. A majority of lawmakers on Wednesday supported the no-confidence vote proposed by the hard left and backed by the far right headed by Marine Le Pen as well as the Socialists.
"I will appoint a prime minister in the coming days," Macron said, adding that a "government of general interest" would be formed to pass a budget. Barnier – who was only premier for three months – and his ministers will remain in charge on a caretaker basis until a new government is appointed.
Trying to limit political chaos is all the more important for Macron given that on Saturday he will host world leaders – including US President-elect Donald Trump – for the reopening of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris after a devastating 2019 fire.
Barnier's ejection in record time came after snap parliamentary elections in June resulted in a hung parliament. No political force was able to form an overall majority and the far right held the key to the government's survival. The trigger for Barnier's ouster was his 2025 budget plan, including austerity measures unacceptable to a majority in parliament, but which were forced through without a vote using special powers.