By Benoît Van Overstraeten
PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron began his latest search for a prime minister on Friday as center-left Socialists signaled they were ready to join a broad governing coalition, sparking tensions within an increasingly fragile left-wing bloc.
Macron this week rejected demands for his resignation to resolve France's political crisis, saying conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier had been driven from office by the “anti-republican front” of the far right and far left .
“We came to say that we want a left-wing policy with a left-wing Prime Minister and that this is the message that he (Macron) must now understand after having chosen Michel Barnier,” declared the president of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure after his meeting with the president. .
In a sign of a change in political trend, Faure said he was ready to support a larger government because “everyone could see” that the current political impasse was harming France, but added that he could not work with another right-wing Prime Minister “under no circumstances”.
Seeking a way out of the political paralysis that followed this summer's snap elections, Macron's allies have for months tried to drive a wedge within the left-wing alliance known as the New Popular Front (NFP), urging socialists to cut ties with the more radical party. (LFI).
LFI's firebrand leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon criticized Faure for speaking to the president, saying in a social media post: “Nothing he does is in our name or in the name of the NFP.”
In a prime-time speech on Thursday, Macron said he would announce a new prime minister in the coming days to replace Barnier, who was ousted in a vote of no confidence by lawmakers angered by his bill of finances 2025 which tightens its belt.
But it remains to be seen how Macron can muster enough support in parliament to pass the budget, or install a prime minister with some longevity.
France's budget deficit has widened this year, worrying financial markets, but the failure to agree a plan to bring it under control has seen French borrowing costs climb even further.
The Socialists, a moderate left-wing group with 66 seats in the National Assembly, voted this week to unseat Barnier, but could become crucial kingmakers.
If Macron can win their support, a new prime minister will likely have the numbers to stave off motions of censure from Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally and other left-wing elements.
Faure said Macron should also seek to involve the Greens and communists.
MACRON REJECTS THE BLAME
Macron, who sparked France's simmering political crisis in June by calling early elections that resulted in a hung parliament, was defiant in his address to the nation on Thursday.
“I am well aware that some want to blame me for this situation, it is much more comfortable,” he said.
But he said he would “never take responsibility” for lawmakers who moved to overthrow the government just days before Christmas. Their only motivation, he added, was the 2027 presidential election, “to prepare for it and rush it.”
The next government would present a finance bill for 2025 at the start of the new year, he said, so that “the French do not foot the bill for this motion of censure”.
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