France's new PM says he will form a government 'next week'
France will have a new government "next week", recently installed conservative Prime Minister Michel Barnier said Wednesday, as he sounded out candidates to run ministries faced with an unpredictable hung parliament.
"We're going to do things methodically and seriously," Barnier told reporters in the eastern city of Reims, adding that he was "listening to everybody" in a political scene split into three broad camps since July's inconclusive snap parliamentary election.
"We're going to name a government next week," he said.
Barnier, who has served as environment, foreign and agriculture minister and was the EU's former chief Brexit negotiator, was named last week by President Emmanuel Macron as his compromise pick for head of government.
With no longer even a relative majority in parliament following his decision to dissolve the National Assembly, Macron delayed picking a PM for weeks over the summer as he tried to find someone who would not suffer an immediate no-confidence vote.
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The chamber is largely divided between Macron's centrist supporters -- now loosely allied with Barnier's rump conservative party – the left-wing NFP alliance and the far-right National Rally (RN).
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