Bombay Durpun - Suspense mounts as Macron prepares to unveil new French PM

Macron had promised to name a replacement government chief within 48 hours after meeting party leaders at his Elysee Palace office Tuesday, participants said.

But he remains confronted with the complex political equation that emerged from July's snap parliamentary poll: how to secure a government against no-confidence votes in a lower house split three ways between a leftist alliance, centrists and conservatives, and the far-right National Rally (RN).

Greens leader Marine Tondelier urged Macron on Thursday to "get out of his comfort zone" as he casts around for a name.

"The French public want a bit of enthusiasm, momentum, fresh wind, something new," she told France 2 television.

Former prime minister Michel Barnier, whose government had support only from Macron's centrist camp and his own conservative political family, was felled last week in a confidence vote over his cost-cutting budget.

His caretaker administration on Wednesday reviewed a bill designed to keep the lights of government on without a formal financial plan for 2025, allowing tax collection and borrowing to continue.

Lawmakers are expected to widely support the draft law when it comes before parliament on Monday.

- 'Look to the future' -

At issue in the search for a new prime minister are both policies and personalities.

Mainstream parties invited by Macron on Tuesday, ranging from the conservative Republicans to Socialists, Greens and Communists on the left, disagree deeply.

One totemic issue is whether to maintain Macron's widely loathed 2023 pension reform that increased the official retirement age to 64, seen by centrists and the right as necessary to balance the budget but blasted by the left as unjust.

On the personality front, Macron's rumoured top pick for a new PM, veteran centrist Francois Bayrou, raises hackles on both left and right.

For the left he would embody a simple "continuation" of the president's policies to date, Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure has said.

Meanwhile Bayrou is personally disliked by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, still influential on the right and reported to have Macron's ear.

Other contenders include former Socialist interior minister and prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve, serving Defence Minister and Macron loyalist Sebastien Lecornu, or former foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

But a name could still emerge from outside the pack, as happened with Barnier in September.

Those in circulation "are names that have been around for years and haven't seduced the French. It's the past. I want us to look to the future," Greens boss Tondelier said.

- Far right 'not unhappy' -

While the suspense over Macron's choice endures, there has been infighting on the left over whether to play along in the search for stability or stick to maximalist demands.

Once a PM is named, "we will then have to have a discussion with whoever is named," Socialist chief Faure said, saying the left must "be able to grab some victories for the French public".

The Socialists' openness to cooperation has been denounced by their nominal ally Jean-Luc Melenchon, figurehead of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI).

"No coalition deals! No deal not to vote no confidence! Return to reason and come home!" he urged on Tuesday.

Hardline attitudes are not necessarily vote-winners, with just over two-thirds of respondents to an Elabe poll published Wednesday saying they want politicians to reach a deal not to overthrow a new government.

But confidence in the elite is limited, with around the same number saying they did not believe the political class could reach agreement.

In a separate poll from Ifop, RN leader Marine Le Pen is credited with 35 percent support in the first round of a future presidential election -- well ahead of any likely opponent.

She has said she is "not unhappy" her far-right party has been left out of the horse-trading around government formation, appearing for now to benefit from the chaos rather than suffer blame for bringing last week's no-confidence vote over the line.

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B.Chakrabarti--BD