France's Macron will appoint new prime minister in next 48 hours

By Dominique Vidalon, Michel Rose and Ingrid Melander

PARIS (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron will appoint a new prime minister in the next 48 hours, his office said on Wednesday, adding that a majority of lawmakers were against holding a snap parliamentary election amid France's worst crisis in decades.

Sebastien Lecornu, France's fifth prime minister in two years, tendered his and his government's resignation on Monday, just hours after announcing the cabinet line-up, making it the shortest-lived administration in modern France.

But at Macron's request, Lecornu has held further consultations with political leaders spanning the centre left to centre right in an effort to defuse the crisis.

"A majority of deputies oppose dissolution (of parliament); a platform for stability exists; a path is possible to adopt a budget by December 31," the Elysee presidential office said, citing Lecornu's conclusions.

"On this basis, the President of the Republic will appoint a Prime Minister within the next 48 hours."

NO DEAL BUT SOME HOPE

Lecornu resigned after the opposition, but also some allies, threatened to vote him out, in a sign of the deep instability hitting France, where no group or party holds a majority in parliament, and parties struggle to reach compromises on major issues including fixing the country's ailing finances.

He ended two days of talks with political leaders without a deal to end the crisis, but said he saw a path for a new premier to be appointed soon.

Lecornu did not say who that next prime minister could be, making clear his job was done and it was up to Macron to decide. The Elysee statement did not say who could get the job.

DEAL IS POSSIBLE BUT WON'T BE EASY, CARETAKER PM SAYS

"I feel a path is still possible," Lecornu said of efforts to find a deal to adopt a 2026 budget and give France, the euro zone's second-largest economy, some financial stability.

Speaking after briefing Macron on his talks, Lecornu told France 2 TV that striking a deal would be difficult but that, nevertheless, the prospects of Macron being forced to call a snap parliamentary election to break the deadlock were receding.

"I told the President of the Republic ... that I believe the situation allows for him to appoint a prime minister in the next 48 hours," Lecornu said.

MACRON FACES CALLS TO RESIGN

Macron has this week faced multiple calls to hold a snap parliamentary elections or resign, in particular from far-right and hard-left politicians but also from some in the political mainstream.

Immediate reaction from some of the opposition showed the latest developments had done little to soothe their anger.

Laure Lavalette, a lawmaker from the far-right National Rally, said Macron was just trying to buy time.

Earlier in the day, RN leader Marine Le Pen, who refused to take part in this round of talks with Lecornu, had made clear she would not be part of any deal.

"I'll censure everything. Enough now — the joke has gone on long enough," she told reporters, reiterating her demand for snap parliamentary elections.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, of the hard-left France Unbowed, reiterated his party's view that the only way out of the crisis would be for Macron to resign.

CENTRE-LEFT WANTS TO RUN THE NEXT GOVERNMENT

After meeting with Lecornu, but before his TV interview, Socialist Party chief Olivier Faure and Greens leader Marine Tondelier said the left wanted to run the next government.

The left want a 2% wealth tax on France's richest 0.01% in the 2026 budget, and want to scrap unpopular pension reforms, measures that have strong public support but alienate conservatives.

Markets have taken fright at the political paralysis in France, with investors already jittery over the country's yawning budget deficit.

However, French assets saw some improvement on Wednesday after Lecornu expressed cautious optimism over the possibility of a deal in the morning, with Paris' CAC 40 index up 1.1% on the day. The French benchmark remains one of Europe's laggards in 2025.

(Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Inti Landauro, Makini Brice, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Zhifan Liu, Alessandro Parodi, Amanda Cooper, Alun John; Writing by Ingrid Melander; Editing by Gareth Jones and Nick Zieminski)