The meeting lasting more than two and a half hours on Tuesday at the Elysée between Emmanuel Macron and the leaders of the political parties – with the notable exception of the National Rally and La France insoumise – has not yet allowed us to see white smoke floating above Matignon a little less than a week after the fall of Michel Barnier’s government. However, a name could be known very soon. The Head of State announced to his hosts that he wanted to appoint a new Prime Minister “within 48 hours” who would then be responsible for negotiating at least an agreement to avoid a motion of censure.
During this unprecedented collegial meeting since the start of the political crisis triggered by the dissolution of the National Assembly, the president also underlined “his desire not to dissolve” again between now and the end of his mandate in 2027, according to those around him.
“No longer depend on the National Rally”
Emmanuel Macron also noted “unanimity among political forces to no longer depend on the National Rally”, while only the center and the right said the same for LFI. And if he was able to note the absence of appetite for a “government of national unity”, the president hopes to have found a form of consensus towards a non-censorship agreement which would allow the future government to survive longer than the one , ephemeral, by Michel Barnier.
“Things have rather progressed” on an “exchange of good practices”, declared the head of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure at the exit. According to him, the idea would be that “the government renounces 49.3”, a constitutional tool to pass in force in the National Assembly, “in exchange for which the oppositions would renounce a motion of censure”.
The leader of the Republican Right deputies Laurent Wauquiez also said he hoped for an “agreement to at least not bring down a government”, while excluding a “government contract with people with whom we do not share the same values”.
A Prime Minister by Thursday?
But the head of the Ecologists Marine Tondelier tempered this optimism by deploring that the presidential camp was not ready for “no compromise, no concession”. “We will wait to see” who Emmanuel Macron will appoint to Matignon, she explained, in unison with the other leaders.
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The president promised a choice by Thursday. One of his close allies even mentioned a nomination Wednesday evening. It is then up to this Prime Minister, whose identity remains unknown, to discuss “the substance” with the political forces before forming a government, according to the presidential entourage.