France’s Macron expected to name new prime minister on Friday

French President Emmanuel Macron is likely to name a new prime minister on Friday, his office said.

Speculation is running high in Paris over who will take the job.

French media have floated Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure and former Socialist prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve, as well as centrist politician Jean-Louis Borloo, who served in past governments under Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, as potential candidates.

The clock is ticking for Macron to make a decision, because under France’s constitution the government must submit a draft budget for 2026 to parliament by Monday.

Failure to do so could deepen the country’s political turmoil and weigh further on its heavily indebted economy.

Acting Finance Minister Roland Lescure assured that France would get a budget for 2026 passed and honour its European fiscal commitments.

“There is a majority of lawmakers who want stability and agree on one point: France needs a 2026 budget that meets our obligations to our European partners — and that’s exactly what will happen,” he said at a meeting in Luxembourg.

Sébastien Lecornu resigned as prime minister on Monday after less than a month in office, saying a lack of compromise across the political spectrum had made it impossible to govern.

But Macron then tasked him with holding talks with political party leaders to sound out a possible way forward. In comments made late Wednesday, Lecornu sounded optimistic that a new prime minister could make headway and advised Macron against dissolving parliament.

France has been mired in political deadlock — and churned through prime ministers — since a snap election called by Macron in mid-2024, which left no camp with a majority.

The country’s high public debt has underscored the need for cross-party agreement on spending cuts, but deep divisions have persisted.