Macron’s whirlwind hunt for new prime minister sends French politics into a frenzy

PARIS  —  You know political speculation has gotten out of control when even children are badgering the French prime minister on who his successor will be.
Rife conjecture, lengthy talks and a constantly changing list of possible candidates have marked French President Emmanuel Macron’s latest push to break the deadlock that has gripped France since snap elections this summer delivered a hung parliament. As the French returned to work and school on Monday, their country appeared no closer to having a government than it did before the Olympics.
The day began with Bernard Cazeneuve as the apparent front-runner, but the former prime minister was out of contention after lunch. Then, it was rumored that Macron was in talks to appoint a little-known top civil servant, Thierry Beaudet, to the post. Overnight, conservative heavyweight Xavier Bertrand replaced Beaudet as the new favorite.
Macron on Tuesday held talks with conservative leaders including Senate leader Gérard Larcher and conservative parliamentary leader Laurent Wauquiez, according to several people with knowledge of the talks who were granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, seemingly solidifying Bertrand’s status as likely nominee.
But by Tuesday afternoon, Bertrand was already facing serious objections to his appointment.
The last 36 hours have baffled even seasoned political observers, and inspired no shortage of mocking memes and jokes online. French journalist Diane de Fortanier tweeted a mock graph of the rise and fall of potential candidates, while former Elysée official Gaspard Gantzer poked fun at Macron’s dithering and endless consultations — joking he’d next be meeting with French prime ministers, winners at the Césars and Tour de France champions.
Even outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal couldn’t escape the frenzy during a visit to a school in the Paris region on Monday, when he got a grilling by pupils over who the next prime minister will be and whether he was still friends with the French president.
In many other European countries, parliamentary democracy and difficult coalition talks are the norm, and these lengthy consultations would be par for the course. But in France, where the presidential system has guaranteed political stability since the beginning of the Fifth Republic, the uncertainty is unprecedented.
A caretaker government has run the country since July, when ministers resigned following snap elections in June that failed to deliver an absolute majority in the French National Assembly. The New Popular Front, an alliance of parties on the left, won the most seats.
But Macron has resisted appointing Lucie Castets, the left’s candidate for prime minister, arguing that the New Popular Front does not have enough support in the National Assembly and wouldn’t survive a vote of no confidence.
Instead former socialist PM Cazeneuve was seen as the front-runner to lead a new government in recent days. As a politician from the left, his appointment would have been a nod to the New Popular Front’s victory without actually handing the group power. Cazeneuve left the Socialist Party, one of the New Popular Front’s four main members, in 2022 in opposition to a previous alliance with the far left.
Cazeneuve was one of six different people from across the political spectrum to meet with Macron on Monday. Among them were Bertrand — the prime ministerial candidate from the center-right who serves as president of the Hauts-de-France region — and former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande.
Cazeneuve met the French president for talks on Monday first, but his chances of an appointment appeared to begin dwindling almost immediately, according to French political commentators. Not only was the former Socialist unlikely to marshal the full support of the old allies, but he had signaled in recent days that he would keep his independence if he was appointed prime minister.
Socialist heavyweight Carole Delga also told reporters on Monday that she had spoken to Cazeneuve after his Elysée meeting and he confirmed to her that he wanted to break with Macron’s past policies and repeal the president’s flagship pensions reform — likely a non-starter for the president.
As Macron’s meetings with some of the most recognizable figures in French politics continued, word began circulating that the little-known but high-ranking civil servant Beaudet was primed to take the second-most powerful job in France.
His emergence, reported by several French outlets and confirmed to POLITICO by a person with knowledge of the Elysée’s thinking, took the political establishment by surprise, with TV journalists and politicians scrambling to check his biography and his politics.
But the Beaudet option collapsed as quickly as it materialized. Those waiting for white smoke from the Elysée Palace were disappointed as talks drifted into Tuesday.
Appointing Beaudet as prime minister alongside a cabinet of experts would have had the advantage of reassuring markets just as France faces tough talks on the upcoming budget and risks being sanctioned by the European Commission over its debt and finances.
It would also have spared Macron the humiliation of handing the reins of government to his opponents on the right or the left.
But Beaudet’s candidacy was swiftly dashed by Macron’s own camp, as he was seen ill-equipped to handle the aggressiveness of French parliamentary politics.
“He’s going to get gobbled up by the crocodiles,” one government adviser told Playbook Paris. “You can’t dither for seven weeks and then appoint a technician who will deliver Macronist [policies], it would be a negation of the election,” said one official belonging to Macron’s Renaissance party.
Late on Monday, the thinking at the Elysée appeared to have gone full circle. “We are again searching for a political profile apparently,” said an outgoing minister.
Anthony Lattier, Elisa Bertholomey and Sarah Paillou contributed reporting