French President Emmanuel Macron has met with two of his predecessors, François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy, amid an increasingly wide-ranging hunt for a new French prime minister.
Since Macron last month rejected Lucie Castets — the hard-left New Popular Front (NFP) group favourite for the job — several names have been suggested in the media, with much of the interest focusing on senior Socialist politician Bernard Cazeneuve.
Having served as PM late into Hollande’s tenure as French head of state, Cazeneuve — who was in power during the Bataclan massacre in 2015 — is seen as having support on both the Left and Right.
Macron’s meetings with the two former presidents on September 2 do not appear to have centred on Cazeneuve as a candidate, with the focus instead shifting to Thierry Beaudet.
The current President of France’s Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE), Beaudet was suddenly invited to the Élysée Palace, meeting Macron on the morning of September 2 ahead of his discussions with Hollande and Sarkozy.
Some now speculate that a decision on the prime ministerial position could be made as soon as the evening of September 2, although similar predictions made in August proved incorrect.
France’s hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party has threatened to launch impeachment proceedings against President Emmanuel Macron. https://t.co/caTJGFsT3f
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) August 19, 2024
Since Macron’s snap election in July returned a hung parliament equally split between his Ensemble coalition, the hard-left, and the hard-right, the President has put off appointing a prime minister, using the ongoing Olympics and Paralympics as the reason for not having done so.
He is now running out of time, with the headless government due to propose the next budget for the country on October 1.
While Macron had vowed not to work with those on the Right of the political spectrum, his decision to snub Castets has earned him enemies on the Left, with senior members within the New Popular Front coalition emphasising that the bloc will vote to torpedo any government not led by their candidate.
“We will vote no confidence in any government not led by Lucie Castets,” left-wing MP Manuel Bompard insisted.
Europe should focus on developing its own brand of artificial intelligence (AI) and leave the issue of its regulation for later, French President Emmanuel Macron has said. https://t.co/obl4S4FwEm
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 2, 2024
