By Inti Landauro and Makini Brice
PARIS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron was on Thursday searching for his sixth prime minister in under two years, hoping his next pick can steer a budget through a legislature riven by crisis.
Macron’s office said on Wednesday he would appoint a new prime minister within 48 hours, after outgoing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu held two days of talks to seek a way out of France’s worst political crisis in modern history.
The political paralysis has made it deeply challenging to pass a belt-tightening budget, demanded by investors increasingly worried by France’s yawning deficit.
“The question that is posed today is whether there are enough people who are responsible,” government spokesperson Aurore Berge told RTL radio on Thursday morning. “I think this is the last chance.”
LECORNU SAYS HIS WORK IS DONE
Lecornu tendered his and his government’s resignation on Monday, hours after announcing the cabinet line-up, making it the shortest-lived administration in modern France.
He said in a television interview on Wednesday evening that his work was now done.
He said he had learned from the talks that a majority of lawmakers opposed holding a snap parliamentary election, that there was a path to passing a budget by the end of the year and that it would be possible to hold a debate on pension reform.
Macron’s 2023 pension overhaul, which gradually raises the retirement age from 62 to 64, is one of his presidency’s signature policies. Members of the left have called for the law to be repealed or suspended.
But Lecornu’s comments, and the prospect of a new prime minister, failed to secure a compromise among rival parties, who largely stuck to their views on how to proceed.
Manuel Bompard, of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), said a debate on pensions had already taken place and urged Macron to resign. Jordan Bardella, president of the far-right National Rally (RN) reiterated his party’s calls to hold fresh parliamentary elections.
Both LFI and the RN had boycotted talks with the prime minister.
The Socialists said Macron should appoint a prime minister from the left. The Republicains, who are part of the outgoing government, said they would not support a leftist premier.
The crisis has caused jitters on financial markets but bonds held onto gains from the day before on optimism that France can avoid a snap parliamentary election and agree on a budget.
(Reporting by Makini Brice and Inti Landauro; Editing by Gabriel Stargardter and Timothy Heritage)
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