Defiant Macron seeks new French PM, exit from crisis

 
President Emmanuel Macron on Friday was to hold talks with political factions as he seeks to name a new prime minister and find a way out of France's political crisis. Macron adopted a defiant tone in an address to the nation late Thursday, 24 hours after Prime Minister Michel Barnier's government was ousted in a historic no-confidence vote, AFP reports.

Macron vowed to name a new prime minister in the coming days, rejected growing pressure from the opposition to resign and blamed an "anti-republican front" of the hard left and far right for France's woes.

Contemporary France's shortest-serving premier, Barnier resigned after Wednesday's parliamentary defeat in a standoff over the budget forced his government to step down, the first such toppling of a French administration in more than 60 years.

"I will appoint a prime minister in the coming days," Macron said, adding this person would be charged with forming a "government of general interest" with a priority of passing a budget.

The French presidency said earlier that Barnier and his ministers would remain "in charge of daily business until the appointment of a new government".
Macron is on Friday to meet leaders of the parliamentary factions of his own centrist forces, the Socialist Party and the right-wing Republicans to continue the search for a compromise, presidential sources said.

The hard-left France Unbowed and far-right National Rally (RN) have not been invited at this stage. Limiting any impression of political chaos is all the more important for Macron given that on Saturday he will host world leaders -- including US President-elect Donald Trump -- for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris after a devastating 2019 fire. Pointing to how the edifice was rebuilt within the five-year timeline he had set, Macron said: "It's the proof we're able to do great things, that we can do the impossible."

In an unusual move, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, France's top diplomat for just two-and-a-half months, urged unity in a message on social media, saying "instability is vulnerability" at a time of international uncertainty.

A majority of lawmakers on Wednesday supported the no-confidence vote proposed by the hard left and backed by the far right headed by Marine Le Pen.

Barnier's ejection in record time came after snap parliamentary elections in June resulted in a hung parliament. No political force was able to form an overall majority and the far right held the key to the government's survival.

The trigger for Barnier's ouster was his 2025 budget plan, including austerity measures unacceptable to a majority in parliament, but which he argued were necessary to stabilise France's finances.

On Monday he forced through a social security financing bill without a vote, but the ousting of the government means France is still without a budget.