Will France's Macron finally name new PM?

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00:00French politics. It's been two months since elections here delivered a divided parliament

00:05and the country remains without a prime minister and effectively without a government.

00:10President Macron has been holding talks over the past week with figures across the political

00:15spectrum in a bid to break the deadlock but no deal has appeared for the moment.

00:22At the same time Macron's former prime minister Edouard Philippe has announced that he plans to

00:27run for the presidency in three years time. Well let's speak to James Andre now he is our

00:33reporter live at the Elysee Palace covering developments today. James first of all any

00:39sense on when there might be progress when we might hear who France's prime minister is to be?

00:48Well look for now we have no information coming from the Elysee Palace what we do have though is

00:52some members of the French press namely BFM TV saying that they have information that there might

00:58be a prime minister named between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. this evening. Now I wouldn't raise your hopes

01:04too high though because we've been hearing that for a few days now yesterday already we're supposed

01:08to have a prime minister and we know that indeed all the negotiating and the calculating is still

01:15going on as you know Emmanuel Macron is trying to find a figure that will be able to navigate

01:22the current divided parliament that has been elected at the French National Assembly and avoid

01:28a vote of no confidence that is very much the question. For now it's still the two same names

01:33that are being floated that of Xavier Bertrand who is the president of the Hauts-de-France northern

01:39part northern region of France who is part of Les Républicains the Republicans which is the

01:46center-right party here in France but it's very complicated because of course the whole of the

01:51left wing of the French political spectrum is not very happy with this choice and of course

01:58the national rally isn't as well simply because there is a personal feud between Xavier Bertrand

02:06and Marine Le Pen. He beat her in these elections for the control of France's most northern region

02:14the Hauts-de-France. Other name which is being floated is Bernard Cazeneuve. Bernard Cazeneuve

02:20was a prime minister under François Hollande. He is from the left-wing socialist party

02:28but there again there are many questions including France Unbowed who has a large number of

02:35members of parliament in this new assembly and who is saying that they would not back him and

02:39that they would potentially also resort to a vote of no confidence. So it's very difficult and the

02:44feeling here is that for now Emmanuel Macron who is taking his time has still not managed

02:51to find a solution to this tricky mathematical problem. And no deal for the moment James but

03:00we have politicians here who are already looking a good couple of years into the future as I

03:04mentioned Edouard Philippe former prime minister now saying he wants to run for the president's

03:11job in 2027. What do you make of that and why do you think he's making the announcement now?

03:19Well I mean this is not exactly a surprise. Edouard Philippe had made it you know had at

03:24least let it known that he was interested in the job for 2027. He is you know the he's the

03:31mayor of a city here in France and he was basically keeping a low profile and indeed you know letting

03:38this idea float but everybody was expecting him to come out with this proposition one day. Now why

03:45is he doing that now? Well some commentators here in France are saying that you know the first

03:49reason is because potentially this institutional crisis we have right now in France could

03:55potentially lead to Emmanuel Macron stepping down and in that case well he'd be ready for the job.

04:01Also it is very early for 2027 but it's also a way of already floating his name and starting to take

04:07some distance politically with Emmanuel Macron and to get ready.

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