Paris (AFP) – France's prime minister on Saturday was elected leader of the centrist Renaissance party's parliamentary group as politicians from all sides jockeyed for position to form the next government.
Gabriel Attal was the only candidate in the vote by the Renaissance party parliamentary group, which he plans to use as the base from which to rebuild the political force that got roundly beaten in a snap election called by President Emmanuel Macron.
Of the 98 Renaissance deputies registered to vote, 84 backed Attal, who will start in his role next week.
As Attal and other ministers eye a future outside government, deep cracks have appeared between the 35-year-old premier and his former mentor Macron.
Macron did not get any mention in Attal's message to Renaissance deputies outlining his leadership bid, with observers saying that the prime minister blames the president for calling the vote, which he said took the party to the brink of "extinction".
Sunday's election runoff left the National Assembly without any overall majority, but a broad alliance – called New Popular Front (NFP) – of Socialists, Communists, Greens and the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) won the most seats, with 193 in the 577-strong lower chamber.
Macron's allies came second with 164 seats and the far-right National Rally (RN) third at 143.
Macron, who still has nearly three years in office, lashed out at Attal and others in a closed-door meeting Friday, saying his political friends had made a "disastrous spectacle" of themselves since the snap election.
Participants at the meeting – attended notably by Attal, his rival Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and former prime minister Elisabeth Borne – told AFP that Macron had urged his allies to give priority "to the nation rather than to premature ambition".
Former communist MP as prime minister?
According to the constitution, Macron will appoint the next prime minister, who must be able to survive a confidence motion in parliament.
This appointment could come as early as next week when the new National Assembly session opens, but Macron could ask Attal to stay on while Paris hosts the Olympic Games starting July 26.
Such a decision would also give the NFP bloc more time to hammer out agreement on a consensus candidate to pitch to Macron.
The alliance's members have been at loggerheads about a suitable frontrunner.
LFI firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon is one of a handful of names debated within the bloc.
But the latest speculation is centred on Huguette Bello, 73, a former communist MP and currently the president of the regional council in France's overseas territory La Reunion, as a possible consensus candidate.
She has the backing of LFI, the communists and the Greens, while Socialists back their party boss Olivier Faure, a moderate.
Neither far right nor radical left
Macron has ruled out a government role for either LFI – the largest player in the New Popular Front (NFP) left alliance – or the far-right RN in any new coalition.
Attal echoed that stance Friday, saying that he would seek "to guard against any government" that included RN or LFI ministers. He himself would "contribute to the emergence of a majority concerning projects and ideas", Attal said.
Some in the far-right RN have suggested that a non-partisan technocratic government acceptable to all sides could be the way forward.
Whoever takes charge of the new government will have spending ambitions constrained by France's weak public finances.
Budget deficits and debt levels have spiralled in recent years, with Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire saying this week that France needed to find a total of 25 billion euros ($27 billion) in savings this year to begin returning to fiscal sustainability.
