France's Macron accelerates efforts to break PM deadlock

France's President Macron seeks new prime minister after legislative election deadlock, consulting former presidents and potential candidates.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday (September 2, 2024) intensified efforts to find a new prime minister after almost two months of deadlock following inconclusive legislative elections, hosting two former presidents and two potential candidates.

France has been without a permanent government since the July 7 polls, in which the left formed the largest faction in a hung parliament with Mr. Macron's centrists and the far right comprising the other major groups.

Two possible candidates for prime minister - former premier Bernard Cazeneuve from the centre left and right-wing ex-minister Xavier Bertrand - held separate meetings with Mr. Macron.

It is traditional for the French president to consult predecessors during moments of national importance, and Mr. Macron also met Monday at the Elysee presidential palace with the two surviving former presidents - right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Francois Hollande.

An Elysee source, asking not to be named, did not rule out that a third candidate could emerge.

French daily Le Monde reported that 62-year-old Thierry Beaudet, head of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE) advisory body and a figure utterly unknown to most French people, was also considered for the job.

"It's a very serious option," a person close to Mr. Macron said. "It's a solid, new response to the need for dialogue in society."