France’s Macron meets political leaders in search for PM

Under France’s political system, the president appoints a prime minister who can command a majority in the National Assembly. In recent years, that prime minister has come from the same party as the president, because they are elected within a few weeks of each other.

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”. A large and stable majority is required that won’t fall with the first censure motion, presidential officials were quoted as saying.

Arriving for talks with the president, along with the leaders of the far-left France Unbowed, the Socialists, Greens and Communists, Lucie Castets said they had come to remind the president to “respect the election result and bring the country out of the paralysis it has been plunged into”.

She said she and her colleagues were ready to propose a stable solution, but if Mr Macron decided to name another prime minister then Ms Castets warned that he would be sending a signal that he had failed to listen to voters’ demands for a change in political direction.

After his talks with the left-wing alliance, Mr Macron will meet the parties that make up his own Ensemble alliance followed by the leaders of the right-wing Republicans.

On Monday he will talk to the leaders of the far-right National Rally, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, along with Eric Ciotti, who heads a group of Republicans who split from the rest of the party before the election. They came third in the election, even though they had led the first round.