French political leaders meet Macron for tough talks on new PM

French President Emmanuel Macron is meeting party leaders from the political left, centre and right on Friday to re-open talks on appointing a new prime minister after parliamentary polls in July that saw no bloc win an absolute majority in the National Assembly. Macron has come under fire from leaders in the left-wing alliance that won the most seats for ignoring their choice for PM.

French President Emmanuel Macron began a round of thorny consultations with political leaders on Friday, hoping to cobble together a viable ruling coalition after last month's inconclusive election.

A full six weeks after a snap election in which Macron lost his relative parliamentary majority, he has still not named a new prime minister, whose first major task will be to submit next year's budget plan to the National Assembly.

The left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) -- which emerged as the largest faction post-election -- has said it wants the 37-year-old economist Lucie Castets to be the new premier.

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal has been running a caretaker government.


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