Macron Holds Meeting With Political Parties Ahead Of Appointing French New PM

French President Emmanuel Macron/PHOTO European Union via Wikimedia Commons

JAKARTA - President Emmanuel Macron will hold a meeting of French mainstream political parties on Friday ahead of the deadline for appointing a new prime minister. The head of France's central bank previously warned of a political crisis hampering growth.

Macron is looking for his sixth prime minister in less than two years and needs to find a figure whose appeal covers the right-right and center-left wings in order to direct the budget in fragmented and divided parliaments.

The presidential office said on Wednesday evening Macron would appoint the next prime minister within 48 hours.

The meeting, which did not involve the extreme right-handed National Rally or the extreme left-handed France Unbowed, is scheduled to take place from 12.30 local time.

Reported by Reuters, Friday, October 10, political speculation centers on veteran centrist Jean-Louis Borloo, chief public auditor Pierre Moscovici, and Sebastien Lecornu, who stepped down as prime minister on Monday and appeared to say he would not participate in the candidacy.

"Being prime minister is not a matter of desire. It's a very difficult job right now," Moscovici told broadcaster BFM. "If that question is asked, thank me. It was never asked of me," he continued.

Marine Tondellier and Gabriel Attal, two party leaders, confirmed that they would attend the meeting.

"People say to me, 'He will test Lecornu 2 hypothesis on you.' If that's the case, I wish him luck," Green Party chairman Tondelier told TF1 television.

Attal hopes that the president will hold a meeting to listen to various political parties, not just telling them what he has decided.

"First of all, we need to talk and find compromise among political parties, because I'm worried about trying again the same method of appointing a prime minister before compromise on its roots will have the same effect," said Attal, head of the centrist party and one of Macron's former prime ministers, in an interview with France 2 television.