Macron to announce new French PM in bid to restore stability

Emmanuel Macron has cut short a visit to Poland and flown back to Paris where he is expected to name a new prime minister in a bid to end political turmoil in France.

Eight days after the French parliament ousted Michel Barnier as prime minister in a no-confidence vote, Macron has promised to come up with a replacement.

Ahead of his expected decision, an opinion poll for BFMTV suggested 61% of French voters said they were worried by the political situation.

Macron has held round-table talks with leaders from all the main political parties, bar the far-left France Unbowed (LFI) of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen.

Two years into his second term as president, Emmanuel Macron has vowed to remain in office until 2027 with a government that will not be brought down the way Barnier’s was in the National Assembly.

The former Brexit negotiator was voted out when Le Pen’s National Rally joined left-wing MPs in rejecting his plans for €60bn (£50bn) in tax cuts and spending rises. He was seeking to cut France’s budget deficit, which is set to hit 6.1% of economic output (GDP) this year.

Ahead of Macron’s decision on Thursday night, a spokeswoman for Barnier’s outgoing government suggested the president would either seek to bring parties from the centre left into the government or come to a non-aggression pact so they would not vote it out.

Among the favourites to replace Barnier, who lasted only three months as prime minister, were centrist MoDem leader François Bayrou, Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu and centre-left ex-prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

Under the political system of France’s Fifth Republic, the president is elected for five years and then appoints a prime minister whose choice of cabinet is then appointed by the president.

Unusually, President Macron called snap elections for parliament over the summer after poor results in the EU elections in June. The outcome left France in political stalemate, with three large political blocs made up of the left, centre and far right.

Eventually he chose Michel Barnier to form a minority government reliant on Marine Le Pen’s National Rally for its survival. But now that has fallen, Macron is hoping to restore stability without depending on her party.

Three centre-left parties – the Socialists, Greens and Communists – have broken ranks with the more radical left LFI and have taken part in talks on forming a new government.

However, they have made clear they want to see a leftist prime minister of their choice if they are going to join a broad-based government.

“I told you I wanted someone from the left and the Greens and I think Mr Bayrou isn’t one or the other,” Greens leader Marine Tondelier told French TV on Thursday, adding that she did not see how the centrist camp that lost parliamentary elections could hold the post of prime minister and maintain the same policies.

However, she also said she was not in favour of Bernard Cazeneuve, even though he was a Socialist: “The only times he’s talked about us was to criticise us. He can’t represent us.”

Relations between the centre left and the radical LFI of Jean-Luc Mélenchon appear to have broken down over the three parties’ decision to pursue talks with President Macron.

After the LFI leader called on his former allies to steer clear of a coalition deal, Olivier Faure of the Socialists told French TV that “the more Mélenchon shouts the less he’s heard”.

Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen has called for her party’s policies on the cost of living to be taken into account by the incoming government, by building a budget that “doesn’t cross each party’s red lines”.

Michel Barnier’s caretaker government has put forward a bill to enable the provisions of the 2024 budget to continue into next year. But a replacement budget for 2025 will have to be approved once the next government takes office.