By Elizabeth Pineau and Dominique Vidalon
PARIS (Reuters) -The leaders of France’s Socialist Party hailed “interesting but inconclusive” talks with President Emmanuel Macron and other mainstream party chiefs on Tuesday, as the French leader set himself 48 hours to name a new prime minister.
The Socialists have emerged as potential kingmakers after Michel Barnier’s government was ousted last week, sparking France’s second major political crisis in six months.
Macron is hoping the Socialists will help his next government chief stave off another no-confidence vote, but they want him to name a leftist prime minister in exchange. They may also seek to dilute his landmark pension reform.
“It was an interesting but inconclusive meeting,” Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure told reporters after leaving the Elysee. “The ball is in the president’s camp.”
Macron told party chiefs he hoped to avoid dissolving parliament again before his second and final term ends in 2027, a presidential aide said. Macron’s decision to dissolve parliament in June, triggering snap elections, delivered an unruly hung parliament that has proven politically unstable.
Macron also told party chiefs that he didn’t want to rely on support from the hard-left, or far-right National Rally (RN), and asked them to agree to a non-aggression pact, the aide said.
Macron wants to name a new government in 48 hours. On Wednesday, the cabinet is due to sign off on emergency legislation to roll over the 2024 budget after the scuppering of the 2025 bill.
After the talks, Green party leader Marine Tondelier was not impressed, telling reporters Macron had been intractable.
He made “no compromise, no concession,” she said, adding “that the presidential camp hasn’t budged one iota.”
Laurent Wauquiez, the head of the Republican Right grouping in the National Assembly, also remained sceptical of an unprecedented political union between the centre-right and left.
“At the end of this meeting, we all share the same conviction, there will be no government contract with people with whom we do not share the same values,” he told reporters.
The RN and far-left France Unbowed, who together ousted Barnier, were not invited to the meeting. The Socialists said Macron’s decision to snub the RN had opened space for talks.
