“We left this meeting dumbfounded,” Marine Tondelier, the leader of the French Greens, told reporters who had gathered in the Elysée courtyard before her departure. “We feel that we came away with no answers whatsoever, except that the next prime minister, who will be appointed in the next few hours, will not be from our political camp.”
Other political leaders who spoke to the press confirmed that the French president was planning to name a new prime minister Friday night and that it would not be someone from the political left.
Tondelier, along with her allies from the center-left Socialist Party and the Communist Party, had been pushing for a prime minister from one of their ranks to be appointed after the last three governments — composed of centrists and conservatives — all collapsed.
Speculation over who Macron might appoint next has run rampant, with possibilities including Lecornu being reappointed or the formation of a so-called technical government made up of non-political experts.
Multiple attendees reported that the French president expressed a willingness to make limited concessions on the contentious law passed two years ago, which raised the retirement age.
But that offer — reportedly to temporarily push back the incremental adjustment by a year — was largely viewed as insufficient.