PARIS, Sept 2, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron was to host
former presidents Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande Monday as he weighed
options for prime minister after inconclusive parliamentary polls, with one
centre-left figure the apparent front-runner.

Bernard Cazeneuve, a former leading Socialist who headed the government in
the final months of Hollande's 2012-17 presidential term, will also meet
Macron during the morning, people close to Cazeneuve and people in the
president's office told AFP.

Cazeneuve, 61, spent years as interior minister, including during the
traumatic 2015 Paris attacks, and enjoys respect from across the political
spectrum.

He was "not asking (for the job of prime minister) but would do it out of
duty" if called upon, people in his circle said.

Cazeneuve was "a responsible man of the left who would take into account the
political but also the economic situation of the country," they added.

Any new prime minister must be able to survive a no-confidence vote in the
lower house National Assembly split almost evenly between the New Popular
Front (NFP) alliance of left parties, Macron's centrist camp and the far-
right National Rally.

The left insists they have the right to form a government as the largest bloc
to emerge from the July 7 polls -- while still around 100 seats short of a
majority of 289 in the 577-seat chamber.

But Macron has refused for weeks to name their prime ministerial candidate,
37-year-old economist and civil servant Lucie Castets.

The president says the constitution demands he ensure "institutional
stability" -- something he believes would not be guaranteed if Castets was
immediately ousted in a no-confidence vote.

His opponents argue Macron is trying to limit the fallout from the massive
drop in support voters inflicted, aiming to prevent the next government going
back on reforms dear to his heart.

- 'We will vote no confidence' -

Macron was able to put off naming a new prime minister over the summer break
as the French public enjoyed a rare moment of shared enthusiasm around the
Paris Olympics.

But an October 1 deadline is now looming for a new government to file a draft
budget law for 2025 -- something the caretaker administration under Gabriel
Attal, in place since July, cannot do.

Any government will need to reach out across party lines to pass legislation
in the divided chamber.

Cazeneuve has earned support beyond the left by quitting the Socialist Party
in 2022 when it first formed an alliance with hard-left party France Unbowed
(LFI) -- as well as for his history of public service.

He is "one of those who seem to me capable of bringing people together beyond
his own camp," National Assembly speaker Yael Braun-Pivet, a Macron
supporter, told broadcaster France Inter Sunday.

Anne Hidalgo, the Socialist mayor of Paris, also called him "credible and
serious" on Saturday.

But the former PM "is not supported by any of the four left-wing parties in
the country", LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard told news channel BFMTV.

"We will vote no confidence in any government not led by Lucie Castets,"
Bompard added.

Today's NFP left alliance built itself around breaking with the policies of
Hollande, who Bernard Cazeneuve served as prime minister.

- Debt burden -

Besides Cazeneuve and the two former presidents, Xavier Bertrand, a leading
figure of the moderate right, is likewise expected at the Elysee in the
afternoon.

Macron is likely to hear from Sarkozy that he should name a prime minister
from the rump of the once-dominant conservative Republicans party that he led
to presidential victory in 2007.

"The centre of gravity of French politics is on the right" after this year's
election, he argued in the Figaro daily on Saturday.

But Republicans leaders have their eyes set on the next presidential poll in
2027 and prefer to avoid staining their opposition image by joining a
coalition government.

As the posturing and positioning winds on, the clock is ticking on the 2025
budget.

With debts piling up to 110 percent of annual output, France has this year
suffered a credit rating cut from Standard and Poor's in June and been told
off by the European Commission for excessive deficits.

"No (future) government can spare itself from keeping up efforts to reduce
the deficit" caretaker public finances minister Thomas Cazenave told daily Le
Parisien's Sunday edition.