Sergey Gapon/AFPEmmanuel Macron cut short his visit to Poland and flew back to Paris where he is expected to appoint a new prime minister in a bid to end political turmoil in France.
Eight days after the French parliament ousted Michel Barnier as prime minister in a vote of no confidence, Macron promised to find his replacement.
Before his expected decision, a poll conducted by BFMTV indicated that 61% of French voters said they were concerned about the political situation.
Macron held roundtable talks with leaders from all major political parties, with the exception of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's extremist Party of France and Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally.
Two years into his second term as president, Emmanuel Macron has pledged to remain in office until 2027 with a government that will not be toppled as happened with Barnier's government in the National Assembly.
The former Brexit negotiator was voted out when Le Pen's National Rally party joined left-wing MPs in rejecting his plans to cut taxes and boost spending worth €60bn (£50bn). He was seeking to reduce France's budget deficit, which is expected to reach 6.1% of GDP this year.
Before Macron's decision on Thursday evening, a spokeswoman for Barnier's outgoing government indicated that the president would either seek to include center-left parties in the government or reach a non-aggression pact so that they would not vote on the resolution.
Among the favorites to replace Barnier, who lasted only three months as prime minister, were centrist MDM leader François Bayrou, Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu, and former center-left prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve.
Under the political system of the Fifth French Republic, the president is elected for a five-year term and then appoints the prime minister, who then appoints the president to choose his government.
Unusually, President Macron called for early elections for Parliament during the summer after poor results in the European Union elections in June. The result left France in a political dilemma, with three large political blocs consisting of the left, center and far right.
In the end, he chose Michel Barnier to form a minority government that relied on Marine Le Pen's National Rally party for its survival. But now that the situation has eased, Macron hopes to restore stability without relying on her party.
Getty ImagesThree centre-left parties – the Socialists, Greens and Communists – broke away from the more radical left-wing LFI and took part in talks to form a new government.
However, they have made clear that they want to see a left-wing prime minister of their choice if they are to join a broad-based government.
“I told you I want someone from the left and the Greens, and I think Mr. Bayrou is neither one nor the other,” Marine Tondillier, leader of the Green Party, told French television on Thursday. She added that she did not see how the centrist camp that lost parliament in the elections could hold the position of prime minister and maintain the same policies.
However, she also said that she did not support Bernard Cazeneuve, even though he was a socialist: “The only time he spoke of us was to criticize us. He cannot represent us.”
Relations between the centre-left and Jean-Luc Mélenchon's radical LFI party appear to have broken down over the three parties' decision to continue talks with President Macron.
After the LFI leader called on his former allies to walk away from the coalition deal, the Socialists' Olivier Faure told French television that “the more Mélenchon shouts, the less he will be heard.”
At the same time, Marine Le Pen called for the next government to take her party's policies on the cost of living into account, by building a budget that “does not cross the red lines of each party.”
The caretaker government headed by Michel Barnier has put forward a draft law to enable 2024 budget allocations to continue next year. But the alternative budget for 2025 will have to be approved once the next government takes office.
