Macron
forging ahead with plan to tap new PM, leaving opposition ‘dumbfounded’
A
high-stakes meeting Friday concluded without any apparent breakthroughs.
October
10, 2025 6:30 pm CET
By Victor
Goury-Laffont and Giorgio Leali
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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