Macron won't name leftist prime minister, prolonging political crisis

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out naming a prime minister from the leftist New Popular Front alliance and will instead start a new round of consultations on Tuesday with parties to try to form a new government, Macron's office said.

Realising a government led by the New Popular Front (NFP) would immediately face a no-confidence vote in parliament from all other parties, Macron will confer with party heads and political leaders, the statement said on Monday. The NFP is a broad alliance of parties ranging from the moderate Socialists to Jean-Luc Melenchon's far-left France Unbowed.

Macron's announcement suggests there is no imminent end in sight to the country's political crisis after he called a shock snap election that delivered an unwieldy hung parliament.

No grouping emerged from the snap election earlier this summer with a majority, with the vote evenly split between the New Popular Front, Macron's centrist bloc and the far-right National Rally.

The New Popular Front won more votes than any other party, and has argued that its candidate, little known civil servant Lucie Castets, should be named prime minister.

Castets told Macron on Friday that the left is entitled to form the next government. The Elysee statement came after the New Popular Front said it would not take part in any new consultations unless it was to discuss Castets' nomination.

Leaders from France's far-right National Rally said earlier on Monday their party will block any prime ministerial candidate from the New Popular Front, narrowing Macron's options to resolve the stalemate.

Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, the political tag team that runs the National Rally, met with Macron on Monday. After their one-hour meeting, Bardella said the NFP was a "danger" for the country.

"The New Popular Front in its programme, in its movements, as well as the personalities who embody it represents a danger to public order, civil peace and obviously for the economic life of the country," Bardella told reporters. "We intend to protect the country from a government that would fracture French society."

It remains to be seen who Macron will turn to. The eventual name, someone with the broadest possible appeal, will still need to win approval from lawmakers, and if they say no, Macron will have to go back to the drawing board.

Macron had until now ignored the New Popular Front's nomination, and a source close to him said he believed the balance of power lies more with the centre or centre-right.

Some possible candidates that Macron is mulling include a conservative regional president, Xavier Bertrand, and former Socialist Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, sources have said. French media recently mentioned Karim Bouamrane, the Socialist mayor of an impoverished Paris suburb, as another possible name.

Le Pen suggested Macron could call a referendum to chart a path out of the chaos, and said she was opposed to a so-called "technical" government of apolitical technocrats, saying "there are only political governments hiding behind technical names."