French president Emmanuel Macron is meeting with political opponents on Tuesday in a bid to secure support for his government’s agenda after his coalition failed to win a majority in the parliamentary elections.
Mr Macron had invited all political parties able to form a group in the new parliament for talks on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Party representatives were visiting the Élysée Palace separately for the high-level talks.
Analysts say the president may be eyeing a deal with the right-wing Republicans, and its leader, Christian Jacob attended the talks.
Neither Marine Le Pen’s far-right nor Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s left-green alliance were keen to work with Mr Macron, according to reports.
Ms Le Pen would take part but Mr Mélenchon will not, the AFP news agency reported.
Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure and Communist Party boss Fabien Roussel, members of the Nupes left-wing alliance, were also due to meet Mr Macron.
It came as the president’s office said it had rejected Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne’s offer to resign in the wake of this weekend’s parliament election result.
The loss of his Ensemble alliance’s absolute majority is a painful setback for Macron, who won a second term just two months ago.
French governments have long relied on a lower house of parliament that shares their political line and largely rubber-stamps proposals.
“We must think about a new way of functioning on an institutional level,” European Affairs minister Clement Beaune, a close ally of the French President, told LCI television.
Sunday’s second-round vote left Ensemble as the biggest party, with a fledgling leftwing alliance in second place, the far-right stronger than ever and the conservatives as potential king-makers.
“It’s going to be complicated,” government spokeswoman Olivia Gregoire told France Inter radio. “We’re going to have to be creative.”
Macron now needs either to form a wider coalition or accept leading a minority government that negotiates with opponents on a bill-by-bill basis.
“Such a fragmented parliament will likely result in political deadlock, with a much slower reform agenda,” said Philippe Gudin of Barclays.
“This will likely weaken France’s position in Europe and endanger the country’s fiscal position, which is already weak.”
