France’s Macron vows to stay on, promises PM in ‘coming days’

French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the nation during a televised broadcast from the presidential Elysee Palace, December 5, 2024 (Ludovic MARIN / AFP)
French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the nation during a televised broadcast from the presidential Elysee Palace, December 5, 2024 (Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

President Emmanuel Macron vows to name a new prime minister in the coming days to prevent France from sliding deeper into political turmoil, rejecting growing pressure from the opposition to resign.

Macron adopts a defiant tone in an address to the nation, seeking to limit an escalating political crisis after Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government was ousted in a historic no-confidence vote.

Contemporary France’s shortest-serving premier, Barnier resigned after Wednesday’s parliamentary defeat in a standoff over the budget forced his government to step down, the first such toppling of a French administration in over 60 years.

Macron now faces the task for the third time this year of selecting a new prime minister but did not come up with a name in his address.

“I will appoint a prime minister in the coming days,” he says, adding this person will be charged with forming a “government of general interest” with a priority of passing a budget.

He also lashes out at the French far right and hard left for uniting in an “anti-republican front” to bring down the government.

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