The National Times - Macron expected to name new French PM

Macron had promised to name a replacement government chief within 48 hours of meeting party leaders 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 a no-confidence vote in a bitterly divided lower house where no party or alliance has a majority.

Hope for movement increased when Macron's office said he would "shorten" a trip to Poland trip and return to Paris "in the early evening".

But the president has in the past often taken longer than expected with such decisions.

Greens leader Marine Tondelier urged Macron 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 was felled last week in a confidence vote over his cost-cutting budget.

His caretaker administration on Wednesday reviewed a bill designed to keep government functioning without a formal 2025 budget, allowing tax collection and borrowing to continue. Lawmakers are expected to support the draft law in a vote on Monday.

- '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 much-criticised 2023 pensions reform, seen by centrists and the right as necessary to balance the budget but blasted by the left as unjust.

Macron's rumoured top pick, veteran centrist Francois Bayrou, raises hackles on the left -- leery of continuing the president's policies -- and on the right, where he is 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 the president 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 prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve, current Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu, a Macron loyalist, 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' -

Amidst the suspense, the parties shut out of Tuesday's talks have attacked those involved as weak.

The Socialists' openness to cooperation has been denounced by Jean-Luc Melenchon, figurehead of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) -- the other key 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.

Polls indicate the public is fed up with the crisis. Just over two-thirds of respondents to one Elabe poll published Wednesday said they want politicians to reach a deal not to overthrow a new government.

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

In a separate IFOP poll, 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" that her far-right party was left out of the horse-trading around the government, appearing for now to benefit from the chaos rather than suffer blame for bringing last week's no-confidence vote over the line.

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O.Nicholson--TNT