Macron grasps for magic formula to end France’s political paralysis

PARIS — Emmanuel Macron summoned leaders from across the political spectrum to the Elysée palace on Tuesday in a desperate bid to convince them not to torpedo whatever government is cobbled together next.

The beleaguered French president is grappling for a way out of the crisis triggered by the collapse last week of an administration that was in office only three months. Macron told meeting attendees he would name a new prime minister in the next 48 hours, but since fresh elections can’t be called until next summer, he needs to find a solution to break the paralysis and win around multiple competing political forces.

“He wants to push to the max to try to have a deal,” a person familiar with Macron’s thinking told POLITICO.

To opposition lawmakers, however, Macron might as well be selling la poudre de perlimpinpi — an old-school term which roughly translates to snake oil that the president himself famously used when debating with the far-right’s Marine Le Pen in 2017.

The center-left, which is key to the plan because of the number of seats it holds in parliament, has so far appeared unmoved by Macron’s calls for institutional stability, or by his attempts to appeal to a sense of patriotic duty by compromising to create what he called a government of “general interest.”

Marine Tondelier, head of the French Greens, ruled out any participation in such an arrangement.

“It’s quite ironic that the president should use the expression … as if to acknowledge that previous governments were ‘governments serving special interests,'” she said on X.

While Tondelier’s Greens attended Tuesday’s meeting, Macron didn’t invite the hard-left France Unbowed or the far-right National Rally. Only groups prepared to “compromise” were asked to attend, the president’s office said.

France Unbowed has been loudly calling for Macron’s resignation. It has rejected coalition-building with the center and already vowed to topple the next government. Manuel Bompard, the party’s operations chief, said he understood the Elysée’s decision not to invite them as they would have refused to attend and said other left-wing parties should “resist the temptation to join a government of national unity.”

The far right took a different approach. National Rally leader Jordan Bardella accused Macron of ignoring the millions of people who voted for his party by excluding it from the meeting.

Retaining control

With some of the most radical forces removed from the negotiation table, Macron’s hopes lie in convincing the remaining parties to refrain from voting on no-confidence motions like the one that last week brought down Prime Minister Michel Barnier.

The most discussed candidates for prime minister — which include the former Justice Minister François Bayrou and current Defense Minister Sébastien Lecornu — are from Macron’s coalition, signaling his desire to preserve some control and safeguard his policies, including the unpopular pensions reform that a majority of lawmakers want to overturn.

But the Greens, Socialists and Communists demand that any new government be led by their pan-left New Popular Front coalition, which won the most seats in July’s election ― and includes France Unbowed.

It’s still unclear whether Macron still has the political clout to broker a deal at a time when a majority of French citizens now want him to resign.

The National Assembly remains just as divided as it was in the summer, when Macron miscalculated and called snap elections that delivered a hung parliament. He picked Barnier in September, hoping that the former EU Brexit negotiator would be able to navigate the tricky political situation given his reputation as an effective dealmaker.

It didn’t work. With Barnier gone and France lacking both a government and a proper budget for next year, Paris is looking to reassure financial markets by pushing forward a stopgap measure to avoid a shutdown.

Anthony Lattier contributed to this report.