Macron seeks fresh negotiations on French government as fronts harden
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00:00France 24's Clovis Casali is at the Elysee Palace in Paris where he's been
00:04following all the political action for us this week. Clovis, what is on Macron's
00:08agenda today? Who's he meeting with?
00:12Well yes, since Friday President Emmanuel Macron has been talking to as many
00:16political parties and senior figures as possible to try to find an end to this
00:21crisis. Today it's Les Républicains, which is the right-wing party, once a
00:27heavyweight here in France when it was led by former President Nicolas Sarkozy.
00:33Les Républicains, now led by Laurent Wauquiez, have already said they don't want to
00:38take part in a coalition government, but they have indicated, they've given signs
00:43that they could support a Prime Minister that wouldn't be from their party,
00:47possibly from the left, if it's a former Prime Minister like Bernard Cazeneuve.
00:52It has to be a consensual figure, someone who's not too left-wing, according to
00:58them. And for Les Républicains, what's important is also to appear as
01:03responsible, not show the French people that they're adding fuel to the chaos
01:08and that they're giving up on their motto or on their key policies, which is
01:14for Les Républicains to reduce deficits but also reduce immigration. So they're
01:19going to be here at the Elysee Palace talking to Emmanuel Macron, negotiating
01:24with him and possibly try to bargain, get some points across, try to get some
01:30political weight.
01:31Meanwhile, criticism of Macron is mounting. Even the centre is
01:35dealing a moan, blaming the President for the current crisis over his apparent
01:39refusal to accept the consequences of electoral defeat. What else are we
01:42hearing from political players involved?
01:47Yes, and one interview that's been released today is making quite a lot of
01:52noise here in France. An interview of former President François Hollande. Of
01:57course, he's a socialist, but he says that Emmanuel Macron, who used to work
02:02here at the Elysee Palace with President Hollande, President Hollande truly the
02:07man who helped Emmanuel Macron get into politics. Well, he says that Emmanuel
02:12Macron's decision to call for snap elections was a political mistake and
02:17especially not choosing a prime minister from the left-wing ranks is a
02:22constitutional fault as well as a political mistake. To remind our viewers,
02:28why is President Emmanuel Macron not refusing to choose a prime minister from
02:34the New Popular Front, the left-wing bloc? Well, it's because he says that, yes,
02:38they have a majority of seats in Parliament, but they don't have an
02:41outright majority and therefore they would not survive a vote of no
02:46confidence. Former President François Hollande says it doesn't matter. He
02:51should still choose a left-wing candidate to be a prime minister of
02:57France, even if he doesn't survive, he or she doesn't survive a vote of no
03:02confidence in Parliament. It would be a way to respect the vote of the French
03:06people. The left-wing saying that President Macron is currently trying to
03:11steal their victory. It's a denial of democracy and they say that President
03:16Emmanuel Macron needs to stop that extremely quickly and urgently needs to
03:20pick a new prime minister, a prime minister, as you've understood, from the
03:24left. Indeed, and those left-wing parties calling for street protests indeed on
03:28September 7th to try to push Macron to do so. That's France 24's Clovis
03:33Casali live from outside the Elysée Palace. For us, we will be keeping a
03:36close eye on those political developments here in France.