Suspense mounts as Macron prepares to unveil new French PM

by Tom BARFIELD and Francesco FONTEMAGGI

French President Emmanuel Macron was expected Thursday to name a new prime minister a week after MPs toppled the government, with politicians across the spectrum holding their breath while he conducts a day visit to Poland.

Macron had promised to name a replacement government chief within 48 hours after meeting party leaders at his Elysee Palace office Tuesday, participants said.

But he remains confronted with the complex political equation that emerged from July's snap parliamentary poll: how to secure a government against no-confidence votes in a lower house split three ways between a leftist alliance, centrists and conservatives, and the far-right National Rally (RN).

Greens leader Marine Tondelier urged Macron on Thursday to "get out of his comfort zone" as he casts around for a name.

"The French public want a bit of enthusiasm, momentum, fresh wind, something new," she told France 2 television.

Former prime minister Michel Barnier, whose government had support only from Macron's centrist camp and his own conservative political family, was felled last week in a confidence vote over his cost-cutting budget.

His caretaker administration on Wednesday reviewed a bill designed to keep the lights of government on without a formal financial plan for 2025, allowing tax collection and borrowing to continue.

Lawmakers are expected to widely support the draft law when it comes before parliament on Monday.

Sources close to the government said the announcement was expected when the president returns Thursday evening from his trip to Poland. But Macron has in the past often taken longer than expected with such decisions.

- 'Look to the future' -

At issue in the search for a new prime minister are both policies and personalities.

Mainstream parties invited by Macron on Tuesday, ranging from the conservative Republicans to Socialists, Greens and Communists on the left, disagree deeply.

One totemic issue is whether to maintain Macron's widely loathed 2023 pensions reform, seen by centrists and the right as necessary to balance the budget but blasted by the left as unjust.

On the personality front, Macron's rumoured top pick, veteran centrist Francois Bayrou, raises hackles on both the left -- leery of continuing the president's policies to date -- and on the right, where he is personally disliked by influential former president Nicolas Sarkozy.

"It's jammed" as Macron looks for a deal with Socialists and Greens to avoid a new no-confidence vote, a person close to him told AFP, adding that a pact could be "a vain hope".

Another senior figure in Macron's camp said informal talks with the two parties on Wednesday had not been conclusive.

Beyond Bayrou, prime ministerial contenders include former Socialist interior minister and prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve, serving Defense Minister and Macron loyalist Sebastien Lecornu, and former foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

But a name could still emerge from outside the pack, as happened with Barnier in September.

Those in circulation "are names that have been around for years and haven't seduced the French. It's the past. I want us to look to the future," Greens boss Tondelier said.

- Far right 'not unhappy' -

While the suspense over Macron's choice endures, the parties shut out from Tuesday's talks are trying to paint those trying to find a way forward as weak.

The Socialists' openness to cooperation has been denounced by their nominal ally Jean-Luc Melenchon, figurehead of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) -- the other heavyweight force in the broad New Popular Front (NFP) left alliance.

"No coalition deals! No deal not to vote no confidence! Return to reason and come home!" Melenchon urged on Tuesday.

Hardline attitudes are not necessarily vote-winners, with just over two-thirds of respondents to an Elabe poll published Wednesday saying they want politicians to reach a deal not to overthrow a new government.

But confidence in the elite is limited, with around the same number saying they did not believe the political class could reach agreement.

In a separate poll from Ifop, RN figurehead Marine Le Pen was credited with 35 percent support in the first round of a future presidential election -- well ahead of any likely opponent.

She has said she is "not unhappy" her far-right party has been left out of the horse-trading around government formation, appearing for now to benefit from the chaos rather than suffer blame for bringing last week's no-confidence vote over the line.

© Agence France-Presse