PARIS (AFP) – French President Emmanuel Macron will next week convene party leaders for consultations, his office said on Friday, in a bid to break political deadlock and form a government following snap elections.
Weeks after legislative elections which produced a Lower-House National Assembly with no clear majority, France still does not have a new prime minister. Macron said in July he would seek to name a new prime minister after the Paris Olympics, which ended on August 11, stressing that parties in a fractured Parliament must come together to build a broad coalition first.
While the successful Olympic Games have lifted what was a morose mood in France, analysts said that it is far from certain this could boost Macron’s embattled fortunes.
On Friday, the Elysee presidential palace said Macron invited party leaders to take part in “a series of discussions” on August 23, with a view to attempting to form a government.
“The appointment of a prime minister will follow on from these consultations and their conclusions,” the presidency said in a statement.
The French people had expressed “a desire for change and broad unity”, the statement said.
“In a spirit of responsibility, all political leaders must work to implement this desire,” said the Elysee, expressing hope the consultations will help move towards “the broadest and most stable majority possible”.
The left-wing New Popular Front, which emerged as the largest faction post-election, has said it wants the economist Lucie Castets, 37, to be the new premier.
Macron had in late July already dismissed the left-wing alliance’s push to name a new prime minister.
But the left-wing bloc will keep pushing at the meeting next week for Castets to be appointed prime minister, Manuel Bompard, coordinator for the France Unbowed (LFI), the largest player in the left-wing alliance, said on X on Friday.
Macron is prepared to receive Castets, a little-known senior civil servant, during the discussions next week, a member of the president’s team told AFP.
“The president is obviously not opposed to this if it is a collective request,” said the source.
