France's Macron hosts ex-presidents, ex-Socialist Cazeneuve amid PM search

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00:00Macron is trying to break through months of deadlock to find a new prime minister.

00:05France still has no permanent government, almost two months after the parliamentary

00:09election that ended up with no clear winner.

00:11Today Macron will be hosting two former French presidents, François Hollande from the left

00:16and Nicolas Sarkozy from the right.

00:18Also today he's sitting down with two potential candidates for prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve

00:23of the center-left and Xavier Bertrand of the center-right.

00:27France 24's Clovis Kozali is keeping a close eye on all of this now for us from the Elysée

00:30presidential palace.

00:31He joins me now from there.

00:33Clovis, the frontrunner in this race so far seems to be Bernard Cazeneuve, who has already

00:36been prime minister once before.

00:38He met with President Macron already today.

00:40Tell us a bit more about who he is and how likely it is he'll get the job.

00:45Well, Bernard Cazeneuve clearly is one of the favorites, if not the favorite.

00:52He comes from the left wing originally.

00:53He left the Socialist Party because he was in disagreement with his party line of conducting

01:00an alliance with the radical left, France en barre de Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

01:04And that's a point in common he's got with Emmanuel Macron.

01:07He doesn't want to see the radical left in government.

01:11Bernard Cazeneuve met for about an hour, 15 minutes with the French president here at

01:16the Elysée palace.

01:17When he left, he did the bise to the French president.

01:22Do you want to see any sign there?

01:23I'll leave you to it.

01:25It has to be said that the two men know each other extremely well.

01:29They were in government together under François Hollande.

01:31And the former French president, François Hollande, also met here with Emmanuel Macron,

01:37meeting face to face.

01:39Surely, Hollande told him that Cazeneuve is a good candidate.

01:42He has the experience.

01:44He was also, of course, the interior minister during the Paris attacks under François Hollande.

01:49Two other key meetings today, Nicolas Sarkozy, former French president, of course, from the

01:55right wing, and then Xavier Bertrand, centre-right politician, who could be also a prime minister.

02:03And let me tell you that there's a new name coming up in the last few minutes, and that

02:07is Thierry Baudet.

02:09He comes from the civil society.

02:11He's the president of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council.

02:16He's met several times with President Macron in the past.

02:20He's seen more towards the left, which could be a good sign for the left-wing bloc, the

02:26New Popular France.

02:27Thierry Baudet, who's also a former schoolteacher.

02:30Clivis, you mentioned former president Nicolas Sarkozy a moment ago.

02:34Also former president François Hollande from the left is meeting with President Macron

02:38today.

02:39I mean, what's the thinking there?

02:40Is Macron just looking for advice from his predecessors?

02:43Well, I don't know if he's really seeking for advice, but at least he's talking to them.

02:51And that's showing the French people that President Macron is ready to speak to the

02:56left, to the right, and also ready to get some kind of points of views from other senior

03:03politicians and, of course, former presidents.

03:06It is indeed significant.

03:10What is important here to understand for our viewers is that why is it, say, taking

03:14so long for President Macron to find a prime minister?

03:17Well, it's because no party has an outright majority, an absolute majority at the National

03:22Assembly, not even a bloc, not even the left-wing bloc, the New Popular Front that did finish

03:27ahead of all the others during the past snap elections.

03:31Therefore, any candidate, any potential prime minister runs the risk of not surviving a

03:37vote of no confidence at the National Assembly.

03:39And that's why it's important for the French president to talk to all political parties

03:43to see who they would potentially support back or at least vote for in the National

03:51Assembly once the prime minister is named.

03:54And, of course, you have the very important question of the budget.

03:57France needs to vote for its budget for 2025, and those talks are set to start early October.

04:04Really, time is running out for the French president.

04:07He needs to find a name extremely quickly, tomorrow, today maybe.

04:12We'll have to wait and see.

04:13All right, Clovis, thanks for that.

04:14That's our Clovis Casale at the Elysee Presidential Palace.

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