Macron meets centrist Bayrou ahead of imminent decision on next French PM happymamay

President Emmanuel Macron met with centrist leader Francois Bayrou on Friday as speculation mounted over who he would choose as prime minister, in an attempt to end months of political turmoil.

It has now been nine days since French lawmakers ousted Michel Barnier as prime minister in a vote of no confidence, and Macron had said a replacement would be appointed by the end of Thursday.

Bayrou is widely seen as a potential successor. He is an ally of Macron, a mayor from the southwest, and leader of the centrist Democratic Movement party.

French politics have been at a standstill since Macron called early parliamentary elections over the summer, and when he appoints a new prime minister it will be his fourth this year.

A poll conducted by BFMTV on Thursday showed that 61% of French voters are concerned about the political situation.

Macron cut short a trip to Poland on Thursday and was expected to appoint his new prime minister last night, but he postponed his announcement until Friday morning.

Macron has pledged to remain in office until his second term ends in 2027, despite Barnier’s fall last week.

If he chooses Bayrou, the challenge will be to form a government that will not be overthrown, as happened with Barnier in the National Assembly.

It is believed that he will either seek to bring centre-left parties into the government, or agree a deal so that they do not oust the next prime minister as well.

Macron has already held roundtable talks with leaders from all major political parties, except for Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left Silent France and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally.

Other candidates to replace Michel Barnier, who lasted only three months as prime minister, include Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu and former centre-left Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

French media quoted another potential candidate, former Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, as saying that he rejected the position because he was in his late seventies.

Barnier, the former Brexit negotiator, was voted out when Le Pen’s National Rally party joined left-wing MPs in rejecting his plans to cut taxes and boost spending worth €60bn (£50bn). He was seeking to reduce France’s budget deficit, which is expected to reach 6.1% of GDP this year.

Under the political system of the Fifth French Republic, the president is elected for a five-year term and then appoints the prime minister, who then appoints the president to choose his government.

Unusually, President Macron called for early elections for Parliament during the summer after poor results in the European Union elections in June. The result left France in a political dilemma, with three large political blocs consisting of the left, center and far right.

In the end, Barnier chose to form a minority government that relied on Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party for its survival. But now that the situation has eased, Macron hopes to restore stability without relying on her party.

Three centre-left parties – the Socialists, Greens and Communists – broke away from the more radical left-wing LFI and took part in talks to form a new government.

However, they have made clear that they want to see a left-wing prime minister of their choice if they are to join a broad-based government.

“I told you I want someone from the left and the Greens, and I think Mr. Bayrou is neither one nor the other,” Marine Tondillier, leader of the Green Party, told French television on Thursday. She added that she does not see how the centrist camp that lost parliament in the elections can hold the position of prime minister and maintain the same policies.

Relations between the centre-left and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s radical LFI party appear to have broken down over the three parties’ decision to continue talks with President Macron.

After the LFI leader called on his former allies to walk away from the coalition deal, the Socialists’ Olivier Faure told French television that “the more Mélenchon shouts, the less he will be heard.”

At the same time, Marine Le Pen called for the next government to take her party’s policies on the cost of living into account, by building a budget that “does not cross the red lines of each party.”

The caretaker government headed by Michel Barnier has put forward a draft law to enable 2024 budget allocations to continue next year. But the alternative budget for 2025 will have to be approved once the next government takes office.