PARIS — Emmanuel Macron’s high-stakes meeting with political leaders Friday ended with several members of the opposition furious over the French president’s plan to name a new prime minister later in the evening.
The meeting, convened to address the political turmoil sparked by outgoing Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s shock resignation on Monday, was attended by all parties in the French parliament except the far-right National Rally and the hard-left France Unbowed.
But the gathering, which lasted two hours, concluded without a breakthrough.
“We left this meeting dumbfounded,” Marine Tondelier, the leader of the French Greens, told reporters who had gathered in the Elysée courtyard before her departure. “We feel that we came away with no answers whatsoever, except that the next prime minister, who will be appointed in the next few hours, will not be from our political camp.”
Other political leaders who spoke to the press confirmed that the French president was planning to name a new prime minister Friday night and that it would not be someone from the political left.
Tondelier, along with her allies from the center-left Socialist Party and the Communist Party, had been pushing for a prime minister from one of their ranks to be appointed after the last three governments — composed of centrists and conservatives — all collapsed.
Speculation over who Macron might appoint next has run rampant, with possibilities including Lecornu being reappointed or the formation of a so-called technical government made up of non-political experts.
Multiple attendees reported that the French president expressed a willingness to make limited concessions on the contentious law passed two years ago, which raised the retirement age.
But that offer — reportedly to temporarily push back the incremental adjustment by a year — was largely viewed as insufficient.
Socialist Party head Olivier Faure insisted that the Socialists were calling for the 2023 reform to be suspended altogether, not just for the increase in the minimum age to be temporarily postponed.
Most of Macron’s current and past allies departed the Elysée without speaking to the media. Former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal — the president of Macron’s party Renaissance, who has grown increasingly critical of his former boss — attempted to slink out discreetly. Green party leaders addressed reporters.
Only Edouard Philippe, Macron’s former prime minister, who called on his old boss to step down Tuesday, spoke. He said to the press: “See you soon.”
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