Emmanuel Macron has called in executives of some of his political parties in his office to demand they exhibit a sense of collective responsibility as he tries to find a new prime minister amid a political crisis that is unraveling.
All of the parties except the far-right National Rally (the largest single opposition party) and the leftwing Jean-Luc Melenchon (la France Insoumable) were invited into the meeting at the presidential palace before a self-imposed deadline set by Macron of 7.00 pm on 10th October to name a new prime minister.
Socialist, Green and Les Republians Parties were invited at 2 am in a sign of the desperate attempt to bring to an end an apparently unsolvable political crisis.
Jordan Bardella the leader of the National Rally party which had refused to support any new administration said that his party was honoured not to be invited, and: Our party is not for sale. Mélenchon mentioned that the only way to stabilize France is the resignation of Macron as a president and an early presidential election. The government of Macron has restated several times that he will not step down before the second term in spring 2027.
The worst homegrown crisis faced by centrist Macron is since the time he was first elected in 2017. On Monday, the prime minister, who was a close ally of Macron, Sebastian Lecornu, resigned only 14 hours after appointing a new government, as critics attacked him on the basis that he refused to make the government open to other political powers and opinions that were representative in parliament.
Lecornu stepped down even before he could sit in his first cabinet meeting and address the parliament with his first policy speech. His predecessor, François Bayrou, had lost office weeks earlier due to budget cuts that he was planning to make.
Lecornu became the third French premier in a span of one year when France was plunged in one political crisis to another after Macron bet on an unresolved snap election bet last year. The parliament has remained divided into three blocs; the left, the far right and the centre, none of which can command a clear majority. The new budget must be reached in the next several weeks even though the political parties are not contemplating compromising with one another and no stable government has been in place in the last few weeks.
It is the sixth prime minister Macron is seeking in less than two years and he will have to find someone capable of reaching some form of compromise or non-war solution between highly opposing political parties in a bid to lead a budget through a fractured parliament.
Lecornu indicated that a new draft budget could be presented at a Monday cabinet meeting, before the end of the year deadline to vote on the bill. Macron has promised to name a new prime minister on Friday evening yet such a nominee would have to build a new government by the end of the weekend to meet initial budget deadlines.
The central bank governor of France, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, forecasted that the political uncertainty would affect the business and consumer confidence and economic growth. In an interview on RTL radio, he said: Uncertainty is the No 1 enemy of growth.
The French political system is that where the president as the head of state and the one in charge of foreign affairs and national security appoints a prime minister as the head of government who is directly charged with the responsibility of everyday management of the affairs in the country.
