'Macron can't continue to play Master of Time, he's actually now coming across as a procrastinator'
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00:00After his self-declared Olympic truce, it's back to the drawing board today for the French president.
00:05Emmanuel Macron is to hold talks with key political players in a bid to form a new
00:09government. The country has been in political limbo since no single party managed to secure
00:15a majority following snap elections last month. Well, for more on what's at stake,
00:20let's bring in Paul Smith. He's head of francophone studies at the University of Nottingham. Thanks so
00:25much for being with us on the programme this morning, Paul. So firstly, let's just go back
00:31a little bit. After winning a third of the seats in parliament following that election
00:35last month, the leftist New Popular Front coalition, it's been insisting that it has
00:40the right to name the country's new prime minister. But after weeks of squabbling internally,
00:45it finally came up with a candidate who appeared to be instantly dismissed really by the president
00:52in a TV interview later that day. So where do you think currently stand? What other potential
00:57candidates are there at this stage? Well, I think she's Lucy Caste, the left wing candidate that
01:04you mentioned there is actually she's used the time during the Olympics to really sort of push
01:12herself forward. She's done a good job of getting out onto the stump and promoting herself as a
01:16potential, a potential candidate. And she'll be there in the meetings this morning with the left
01:21wing parties between Macron and the left wing parties, although she's not a leader of a party
01:26because she has she has been put forward by them as a potential prime minister. She will be she'll
01:31actually be present. There's also the possibility of a centre right candidate emerging some names
01:38that have been circulating. Xavier Bertrand, chair of the regional assembly for the Eau de France
01:45and Valerie Pécresse as well. She seems a bit unlikely because Pécresse would not be able to
01:51reach out to any sort of moderate left. There's also the possibility of an alternative left wing
01:57candidate emerging as you know, it may well be that the Elysée is going to try to undermine the
02:04Castille candidature by finding another left wing candidate. So there are a number of cards apparently
02:11on the table or at least waiting to be played. But there might also be some jokers in the in
02:16the Macron pack. And it's very difficult at this moment in time to see exactly what Macron has up
02:21his sleeve. Yeah, and he does like to surprise voters as well when it comes to naming prime
02:26minister. So there will be further talks, Paul, on Monday. Do you think we're really any closer
02:31to having a prime minister here in France? And when do you think that is going to be?
02:36Well, I think I think we're closer and certainly the what is being said by the Elysée is that after
02:40the talks, they expect there to be a reasonably rapid announcement. You and I know what that
02:46means with Macron. That means we'll be waiting and waiting and waiting. But this can't go on
02:51forever. France has to have a government. I know people say, well, Belgium managed for 500 days
02:55without a government. But France isn't Belgium. France has to have a prime minister. And the
03:00longer it goes on, the longer the stalemate goes on, the more that undermines political credibility.
03:06So I think Macron has to, you know, he can't continue to play the people say sort of the
03:12maître des horloges, master of time. But actually, he's just coming across now as a procrastinator.
03:18So he will want to play for as much time as possible. But I think that we're getting to
03:22the point where, you know, having now said, we will use this weekend for key discussions,
03:29something has to come out of it. Otherwise, credibility, whatever credibility remained,
03:34will go out of the window. And do you think that he's still harboring hopes that a centrist
03:39alliance might be able to pull it off that he might be able to propose a prime minister that
03:42suits his own agenda? Yeah, I think so. I think he's looking for he's looking for cracks in that
03:50left wing block. He is allergic to any, you know, appointment of any La France Insoumise ministers.
03:59That's his own personal position. I think what will happen is also there will probably be kind
04:04of ministerial shopping lists. People will have come up with that have sat down with the backs of
04:09envelopes kind of thing and sort of said, well, imagine if we had such and such in this position
04:13and such and such. You know, this was we think back to Francois Mitterrand cohabitation. He
04:18would kind of veto certain when we found out later that there would be vetoes on certain
04:22figures having certain ministerial portfolios. So you might decide so that this could go here
04:28and this could go there. And Castaix herself has actually made the headline hasn't been very
04:36very conciliatory, but she's made much more conciliatory noises just recently. And I think
04:41that there's there's a certain amount of wriggle room there. But I do think that what you're saying
04:46is right, that Macron would hope that there is some kind of magical candidate. It may well be
04:52that he has someone in mind. Various names have been have been pulled out of a hat this week.
04:56Karim Bouamhan, the mayor of Saint-Ouen, for example, might be an alternative candidate. But
05:03it's really my suspicion is that Macron will try to use these talks also to kind of put pressure
05:11where there are the the splits within the left, but also to try and rally when he's talking to
05:17the centre and right to try and show them where they might have some common ground with the
05:21moderate left. So once we do have a prime minister in place, once we have a coalition in place,
05:27how do you think like what are the chances that coalition will actually be able to get those
05:31passed? If we look ahead, particularly to the budget? Well, yes, that's absolutely the the
05:37crunch question is the, you know, if you appoint, let's say that Macron appointed a left wing
05:43government tomorrow, would it have a majority? Would it? Would let's say Castile becomes prime
05:48minister, would she actually put her government to a test of a vote of confidence as it goes into
05:54office? Would would she would there then be, you know, a vote of no confidence at the very outset
06:00from the opposition? What would be the role of the other parties in joining with the Rassemblement
06:06Nationale? Because, of course, that would be they would be a key player in that. And that would be
06:11very distasteful, I think, to a lot of centrists to bring down a left wing government in in
06:16association with the the the national rally. So I think that there there are a lot of unknowns.
06:23There is the possibility there is the possibility that a government would be able to carry out
06:29piecemeal reform. But it's it's very we're into completely uncharted territory in that regard.
06:37And it will be literally on a measure by measure by measure basis. And it may well be
06:42that that it all falls apart very quickly. But we can't have another election under the
06:47Constitution until next June. Well, thank you so much for joining us. That is Paul Smith from the
06:53University of Nottingham.