President Emmanuel Macron met left-wing leaders on Friday, at the start of two days of crunch talks aimed at deciding who will form France’s next government.
Their four-party New Popular Front wants a little-known senior civil servant called Lucie Castets to be named prime minister.
However, the 37-year-old economist is unelected and seen as an unlikely presidential pick for prime minister.
Under France’s political system, the president appoints a prime minister who can command a majority in the National Assembly.
But after Mr Macron stunned France in June by calling a snap two-round parliamentary vote, his centrist Ensemble alliance came runner-up behind the leftist NFP.
The Élysée Palace said ahead of Friday’s talks that Mr Macron was “on the side of the French” and “the will of their vote”.
Mr Macron was next due to meet the parties that make up his own Ensemble alliance followed by the leaders of the right-wing Republicans.
However, Mr Macron has not given any indication yet of who he might support.
At the beginning of two days of crucial negotiations to determine who will form the next government in France, President Emmanuel Macron met with leaders of the left on Friday.
A stalemate in French politics resulted from early July snap elections, as no party was able to secure a majority in the National Assembly.
Left-wing alliance that won the most votes was upset that France was being led by a caretaker government during the Olympics in Paris.
The prime ministerial candidate of their four-party New Popular Front is a little-known senior civil servant named Lucie Castets. The 37-year-old economist is unelected, though, and is thought to be a strange choice for prime minister by the president.
A prime minister must be able to command a majority in the National Assembly in order to be appointed by the president under the French political system. Since they are elected within a few weeks of one another, the prime minister has come from the same party as the president in recent years.
However, Mr. Macron’s centrist Ensemble alliance lost to the leftist NFP in June after shocking the country by calling for an early two-round parliamentary election.
Prior to Friday’s negotiations, the Élysée Palace declared that Mr. Macron was “on the side of the French” and “the will of their vote.”. Presidential officials were quoted as stating that a sizable and stable majority is needed, one that will not fold with the first censure motion.
Along with the leaders of the far-left France Unbowed, the Socialists, the Greens, and the Communists, Lucie Castets arrived for talks with the president, stating their purpose was to remind him to “respect the election result and bring the country out of the paralysis it has been plunged into.”.
Subsequently, she stated that she and her associates were content that the president had recognized the fact that French voters had conveyed their desire for a shift in political orientation during the elections.
Ms. Castets stated, “Yet the president still seems to be tempted to form his government – we told him it was up to the political force that came top, the New Popular Front, to form a government.”.
The president has not specified a specific date for appointing a prime minister, but socialist leader Olivier Faure said it will happen quickly.
After that, Mr. Macron was scheduled to meet with the leaders of the right-wing Republicans and the parties that comprise his own Ensemble alliance.
He will speak on Monday with Eric Ciotti, the leader of a faction of Republicans that broke away from the rest of the party prior to the election, as well as Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, the leaders of the far-right National Rally. Despite leading the first round of voting, they finished third in the election.
In the 577-seat National Assembly, no party grouping has enough seats to account for the 289 needed for an absolute majority.
Since Mr. Macron is unable to dissolve the legislature until the following summer due to constitutional restrictions, analysts predict he will appoint a prime minister who has the best chance of bringing the parties together.
He stated that voters had indicated their desire for change and broad political unification in a letter to the French people sent last month.
Two names that are being bandied about in political circles are Xavier Bertrand, a Republican regional leader, and Bernard Cazeneuve, a former socialist interior minister.
But as of yet, Mr. Macron has not indicated whom he would back.
Finding a candidate capable of forming a government that doesn’t fall apart at the first sign of a vote of no confidence is a challenging task for him, nearly seven weeks after the election and a fictitious political truce he declared during the Paris Olympics.”.
