Macron rejects PM resignation ahead of talks on France deadlock
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The French President rejects a resignation offer from his Prime Minister ahead of talks with the opposition.
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Macron rejects PM resignation ahead of talks on France deadlock
French President Emmanuel Macron rejected his Prime Minister's resignation offer on Tuesday, ahead of negotiations with the opposition aimed at breaking the gridlock caused by his inability to obtain an absolute majority in legislative elections.
Macron will visit far-right leader Marine Le Pen and other political party leaders on Tuesday to break the impasse of his coalition's inability to secure a parliamentary majority.
According to the Elysee, the French PM offered her resignation to Macron, but he rejected the request.
According to an anonymous presidential official, Macron believes the government should "stay on task and act" and seek "constructive solutions" to the deadlock with the opposition.
The meetings, which will also involve discussions with right-wing, Socialist, and Communist party leaders, are Macron's first attempts to extricate himself from a predicament that threatens to derail his second-term "reform plans".
Macron is scheduled to begin Tuesday's flurry of talks with Christian Jacob, the chairman of the traditional right-wing Republicans (LR), a party on the decline in recent months, but which the President may now seek to give him a majority.
Members of the NUPES left-wing alliance, Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure and Communist Party chief Fabien Roussel, will also visit Macron, though hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon is not planned to do so.
Vulnerable premier
Meanwhile, Le Pen's far-right party achieved its best-ever parliamentary victory, becoming the strongest single opposition party with 89 seats, up from eight in the previous house.
A confident Le Pen claimed that her party would demand to chair the National Assembly's vital finance commission, as is normal for the main opposition party.
"The country is not ungovernable, but it's not going to be governed the way Emmanuel Macron wanted," Le Pen told reporters Monday.
Melenchon said he would launch a no-confidence motion against Borne in early July when she is scheduled to lay out her policy priorities for the next five years.
Borne may now be vulnerable as Macron faces a big cabinet reshuffle as a result of the resignations of several of his closest allies.
His health and environment ministers were beaten and had no choice but to resign, as did the house speaker and the head of Macron's parliament group.
Macron's April presidential election triumph, in which he defeated Le Pen and became the first French president to win a second term in nearly two decades, was harmed by the outcome.
What are the possible outcomes?
Macron's choices include attempting to establish a new coalition alliance, implementing legislation based on ad hoc agreements, or even calling for new elections.
One possibility is an alliance with the Republicans, who have 61 MPs. However, LR President Jacob has stated that his party aims to "remain in opposition."
Macron had wanted to begin his second term with an ambitious tax-cutting, welfare-reform, and retirement-age increase agenda. All of that is now in doubt.
In a rare piece of good news for the president, Europe Minister Clement Beaune and Public Service Minister Stanislas Guerini, both young cornerstones of his party, won tight parliamentary skirmishes.
