Macron Continues Talks w/Political Leaders As PM Attention Shifts Right

President Emmanuel Macron is continuing talks with political leaders as he seeks to thread the needle of appointing a prime minister who can garner majority support in the National Assembly. Earlier today he held talks with Senate President Gérard Larcher and presidents of the conservative Republican Right groups in the National Assembly and Senate, Laurent Wauquiez and Bruno Retailleau. He will continue to hold conversations with other political groups today, including the far-right Rassemblement National (RN).

• Speculation surrounds two potential names for the PM's office: former PM Bernard Cazeneuve from the centre-left Socialist Party (PS) and president of the Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand from the conservative Les Republicains. On 2 Sep there were reports that Cazeneuve looked the likely option with an announcement trailed for today (3 Sep), but with the LR talks the spotlight could be shifting rightwards to Bertrand.
• Eric Ciotti, leader of a rump group of former LR members aligned with RN has said that his group would 'of course' vote down a Bertrand premiership. BFMTV reports that RN, while rejecting Cazeneuve and Bertrand, could consider a technocratic gov't 'under certain conditions'.
• The leftist NFP alliance maintains that as the largest bloc in the National Assembly its candidate, Lucie Castets, should be appointed. Outrage on the left with Macron's approach to appointing a PM has seen a petition calling for his impeachment reach over 186k signatures.
• Political instability makes dealing with therisk of a wider-than-expected budget deficit and reaching a deal on a 2025 programme even more difficult.