France’s Barnier to stay on as caretaker prime minister after submitting resignation

PARIS — French Prime Minister Michel Barnier will stay on in a caretaker capacity after formally handing in his resignation on Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron’s office said in a statement.

Barnier’s government collapsed after losing a no-confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday night. The statement from Macron’s office said the president had “taken note” of Barnier’s resignation, which he was constitutionally required to tender after losing the vote.

Macron is expected to move fast to name a replacement, especially with the eyes of the world on Paris as world leaders — including U.S. President-elect Donald Trump — are in town Saturday for the formal reopening of the Notre-Dame cathedral.

Macron is scheduled to deliver a televised address at 8 p.m. on Thursday, though it’s unclear if he plans to name a new premier by then.

There are no obvious successors to Barnier, though several names have been floated in French media, including Sébastien Lecornu, the minister of armed forces; centrist Macron ally François Bayrou; and former prime ministers Jean Castex and Bernard Cazeneuve.

Caretaker governments in France typically remain in place for only a few days. However, after last summer’s snap elections, former Prime Minister Gabriel Attal served as a caretaker for several weeks after formally submitting his resignation in July.

According to an official note from the prime minister’s internal organization distributed to ministries during the last caretaker government period in July and obtained by POLITICO, cabinet members are restricted during the transition period to handling issues that “require no political judgment and do not raise any difficult legal questions,” or to managing emergencies.