00:31We heard from him a couple of times. Things continue to develop in the French political story.
00:36The French President Emmanuel Macron says he will name then a new Prime Minister by tomorrow evening.
00:41Macron and Le Corneau's comments offer some hope that France's political system can stabilise after three Prime Ministers were pushed out of office since December.
00:50For more, Lizzie Burden is in Paris for us. Lizzie, good morning.
00:53Why will a new Prime Minister last when the others have failed?
00:57I mean, Le Corneau didn't last very long.
01:01No, and there is no guarantee of that.
01:03Of course, the French reaction seems to be a great big Gallic shrug.
01:08But at least for now, Emmanuel Macron has avoided a snap vote or his own resignation for now.
01:21Now the ball is back in Macron's court. He's got 48 hours himself to pick a new Premier.
01:28But why should it be any easier, as you ask, when we still have the same divided National Assembly, the same three antagonistic blocks?
01:37Well, it looks like the path through is going to be on pension reform.
01:41The former Prime Minister, Elizabeth Bourne, saying that she would be open to discussing suspending the 2023 reform that, of course, raised the minimum retirement age,
01:51if that is the price of socialist cooperation, if that is the price of political stability.
01:58And Le Corneau has acknowledged that the country does need to find a way to have a conversation on pension reform.
02:03He's reiterated, actually, that France has a margin for less ambitious budget cuts than planned,
02:09as long as that gap still falls below 5% of economic output next year.
02:14So it seems like they're working towards a compromise.
02:17But the elephant in the room, Anna, as Le Corneau himself put it, is does that next Prime Minister want to be the president?
02:24And that question may be unavoidable.
02:26On the question, then, of pension reform, Lizzie, and adjustments there, at least a willingness to rethink that 2023 policy,
02:36coupled with possibly a less aggressive push on the deficit gap that remains for France.
02:42You put those two things together.
02:43Is that enough to get the socialists on board at this point?
02:47What is our assessment in terms of the left of the political paradigm in France and whether or not that brings them on board?
02:56Well, if you look across the legislature, they don't have many options, Tom.
03:00If you look at the far right, Marine Le Pen has said that she's going to vote to oust any government that comes in.
03:05And if you look at the far left, Unbowed has said that they, too, wouldn't want to work with any government that is linked to Macron.
03:12Now, we've had three prime ministers from the centre who have all, as Anna noted, failed.
03:17So that leaves the left and the Greens.
03:19And it seems that their price is going to be this pension reform.
03:23But that, of course, has its own problems.
03:25Does that come at the expense of that centrist block?
03:29Does it come at the expense of the centre-right Republicans?
03:32And the big question remains, how do you square a left-wing government with deficit control?
03:38It's the very same question that we ask ourselves in the UK.
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