PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday called cross-party talks aimed at "forming or making possible a government of national interest" after the ouster of Prime Minister Michel Barnier triggered a political crisis.
Party leaders were invited to Macron's Elysee Palace office on Tuesday, the presidency said, in a departure from Macron's previous method of meeting leaders individually.
France's parliament has been divided almost evenly between a left alliance, Macron's centrists and the far right since snap elections in July, producing deadlock.
The president took almost two months to name conservative Barnier as premier in September. But the PM was toppled last week in a no-confidence vote over a cost-cutting draft budget for 2025 meant to tackle France's yawning deficit.
Macron's office said that only those who had "shown they placed themselves in a framework of compromise" had been called upon for Tuesday's talks -- appearing to exclude the far-right National Rally (RN) and hard-left France Unbowed (LFI).
Cobbling together any compromise between centre-left, centrists and conservatives will be tricky as all have been clashing fiercely since Macron's first presidential win in 2017.
Initial talks would aim "to make progress on an agreement about the method" to find consensus, the Elysee said.
Under pressure
Macron's call for a broad-based meeting suggests a new executive will not be put together quickly, disappointing calls to move fast from allies including parliament speaker Yael Braun-Pivet.
"Each of us will have to take a step towards the other," Green Party chief Marine Tondelier had said earlier Monday as she arrived for talks with Macron -- adding that it was up to the president "to offer something that isn't just a continuation of his policies".
Some have called for Macron, 46, to himself resign and trigger a new presidential poll.
But a defiant Macron last week said that he planned to serve out the remainder of his term, vowing to produce "30 months of useful action" and promising to name a new prime minister in the "coming days."
The weekend reopening of Paris's Notre Dame cathedral, refurbished after a devastating 2019 fire, offered a brief respite from the political crisis as he hosted world leaders including US president-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Macron is now under huge pressure to form a government that can survive a no-confidence vote and pass a budget for next year in a bid to limit political and economic turmoil.
'Can't go on like this'
"We can't go on like this," Macron's centrist ally Francois Bayrou said on Sunday, warning that the French did not want uncertainty to continue.
Bayrou heads the MoDem party, which is allied to, but not part of, Macron's centrist force. He has been tipped as a possible contender for prime minister. "If I can help us get through this, I will," he said.
However many do not support his candidacy.
"Mr Bayrou's political line did not win the legislative elections," Tondelier told broadcaster RTL on Monday.
"We need a personality who is compatible with the left," added prominent centre-left politician Raphael Glucksmann.
A potential split in the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance of Greens, Communists, Socialists and LFI could prove key to building a new government.
Formed to help keep the far right out of power, the NFP emerged as the largest bloc in the National Assembly after the summer elections.
Its leaders have long insisted that Macron should appoint a prime minister from their ranks, although the president earlier ruled that out.
And the latest government crisis has brought NFP infighting to the fore, with LFI insisting that no cooperation with Macron is possible, while other parties have been open to talks.
Meanwhile, RN head Jordan Bardella, whose party has not been invited to talks with Macron, earlier demanded a meeting with the future prime minister.
"You can't pretend we're not here," he said.
Barnier, prime minister for only three months, remains in charge on a caretaker basis until a new government is appointed.