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Macron works to end France’s political deadlock

​Marine Tondelier, of Les Ecologistes party, talks to journalists next to colleagues as they leave a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Dec. 10. They had met with the French president as part of consultations aimed at appointing a new prime minister.

Marine Tondelier, of Les Ecologistes party, talks to journalists next to colleagues as they leave a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Dec. 10. They had met with the French president as part of consultations aimed at appointing a new prime minister.

REUTERS/Stephanie Lecocq
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On Tuesday, France’s President Emmanuel Macron hosted a meeting with the leaders of center, center-right, and center-left political parties at the Elysee Palace in a bid to end France’s political crisis by building support for a new prime minister and a 2025 budget. Leaders of the far-right National Rally and hard-left France Unbowed were not invited, a decision that National Rally head Jordan Bardella says demonstrated “disrespect and a lack of elegance.” Those who did attend the meeting told reporters that Macron hopes to nominate a new prime minister “within 48 hours.”

France finds itself unable to form a government and pass a budget because Macron called an election for July that empowered both right- and left-wing hardliners with no political bloc winning a majority. France has no prime minister at the moment because these hardliners ousted Michel Barnier – who held his post for just 90 days – in a no-confidence vote. That’s the shortest tenure for any PM in the history of France’s Fifth Republic, which began in 1958.

For now, France’s Green Party says it won’t join a “national interest” government. The Socialists insist they will only support a left-wing prime minister, a non-starter for conservatives.

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