Macron, 47, is searching for his sixth prime minister in under two years and will need to find a figure whose appeal spans the centre-right to centre-left

International News via Reuters:

President Emmanuel Macron welcomed mainstream political leaders to a crunch meeting at the Elysee ahead of a self-imposed late-Friday deadline to name a new prime minister, as the country’s central bank chief warned political turmoil was sapping growth.

Macron, 47, is searching for his sixth prime minister in under two years and will need to find a figure whose appeal spans the centre-right to centre-left in order to steer the budget for 2026 through a fragmented and fractious parliament.

Ahead of the meeting, the president’s Elysee office said the gathering needed to be a “moment of collective responsibility,” which political pundits quickly interpreted as a signal he could call snap parliamentary elections if no consensus candidate was found.

Party leaders from the left, right and centre arrived at the Elysee, but the far-right National Rally (RN) and hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) – two of the largest political parties in the National Assembly – were excluded.

It was unclear how long Friday’s talks would last. Macron’s 48-hour deadline to name a new premier is due to expire later on Friday night.

WHO MIGHT MACRON APPOINT AS PRIME MINISTER?

The daily Le Parisien newspaper reported that Macron intended to reappoint Sebastien Lecornu, who resigned as prime minister on Monday after just 27 days in the post, and that the president did not rule out a snap vote if other party leaders reject the proposal. Lecornu was not due to attend the meeting at the Elysee, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Other names that have been floated in political circles include veteran centrist Jean-Louis Borloo, the head of the public auditor Pierre Moscovici, and Nicolas Revel, a technocrat who leads the Paris hospitals administration.

Reappointing Lecornu would risk alienating the political leaders whose backing Macron needs to form a broad-based government that can get a budget over the line. 

COMPLEX BUDGET TALKS

Wrangling over a budget that can both rein in the country’s deficit while meeting the conflicting demands of both the left and conservatives has been going on for weeks, with Socialist demands for a repeal of a 2023 pensions reform and for heavier taxation of the rich proving big stumbling blocks.

“People tell me: ‘He’s going to test the Lecornu 2 hypothesis on you.’ If that’s the case, I wish him good luck,” Green party chief Marine Tondelier told TF1 television.

Gabriel Attal, a former Macron prime minister and head of the president’s Renaissance party, cautioned against naming the next premier without wider support.

“I fear that trying the same method … of naming a prime minister before there has been a compromise will produce the same effects,” Attal told France 2 television.

SNAP ELECTION WOULD POSE RISKS FOR MAINSTREAM PARTIES

France’s mainstream parties are keen to avoid a snap election. Opinion polls forecast the RN would be the main beneficiary and that another hung parliament would be the most likely result. 

The crisis is the deepest that France, the euro zone’s second-largest economy, has seen for decades. The turmoil was precipitated in part by the president’s failed gamble on a snap election last year that further weakened his minority in parliament.

The central bank chief, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, forecast the political uncertainty would cost the economy 0.2 percentage points of gross domestic product. Business sentiment was suffering but the economy was broadly fine, he said.

“Uncertainty is … the number one enemy of growth,” Villeroy told RTL radio.

Villeroy said it would be preferable if the deficit did not exceed 4.8% of GDP in 2026. The deficit is forecast to hit 5.4% this year, nearly double the European Union’s cap. 

Macron’s second-to-last prime minister, Francois Bayrou, was ousted by the National Assembly over his plans for 44 billion euros in savings to bring the deficit down to 4.6%.

Rating agencies issued a fresh round of warnings about France’s sovereign credit score this week after Lecornu said on Monday his government was resigning, just 14 hours after he had announced his cabinet line-up.

Reporting by Dominique Vidalon and Benjamin MalletWriting by Richard LoughEditing by Alison Williams, Frances Kerry and Toby Chopra

BHV owner Société des Grands Magasins (SGM) has faced a wave of criticism in France

International News via Reuters:

Workers staged a demonstration at Parisian department store BHV on Friday to protest against management and its deal with Shein granting the fast-fashion retailer a permanent space on the seventh floor.

BHV owner Société des Grands Magasins (SGM) has faced a wave of criticism in France, including from the mayor of Paris, since last week’s announcement of the partnership with Shein, which ships cheap clothes straight from factories in China to shoppers in more than 160 countries.

Dozens of workers gathered, waving labour union flags, outside the department store at 3:30 p.m. local time (1330 GMT) where union representatives and city hall officials made speeches.

Late payments to brands at the department store, which has struggled for years, had already led to shortages of products, hurting sales and leaving workers concerned for their jobs, according to a union statement read out at the protest.

UNIONS OPPOSE DEAL, SGM SAYS IT WILL ATTRACT YOUNG SHOPPERS

The announced departure of several French brands from BHV following the Shein deal is now compounding those concerns, the union members said.

“Our customers have already left because they can’t find what they want, but they’re also concerned and don’t approve of Shein’s arrival,” Florine Biais, a BHV worker and union representative, told Reuters at the protest.

Asked about the late payments, SGM said the issue was caused by a shift to new payment systems since it acquired BHV in November 2023 and would be resolved within a few weeks.

SGM has said the Shein store would attract younger shoppers and was part of its plan to modernise BHV.

“We are convinced this partnership is beneficial for the group and its employees,” SGM said in an emailed statement on Friday.

Shein spokesperson Quentin Ruffat said the planned store would help increase the number of visitors to BHV and benefit other retailers.

Shein, founded in China in 2012, has grown rapidly to become the world’s biggest fast-fashion retailer. It has been criticised by politicians, regulators and other retailers around the world over working conditions at its factories, high carbon emissions, and a lack of public information about its management and finances.

Hit by fines of 191 million euros ($221 million) in total from French and Italian regulators since July, the company is trying to tighten its internal controls to better comply with rules and improve its reputation with consumers.

($1 = 0.8636 euros)

Reporting by Helen Reid and Dominique Patton; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Joe Bavier

The Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for almost all of the postwar era, selected hardline conservative Takaichi as its new head in a weekend vote

International News via Reuters:

Sanae Takaichi’s bid to become Japan’s first female prime minister was thrown into doubt on Friday when her ruling party’s junior coalition partner quit.

The Liberal Democratic Party, which has ruled Japan for almost all of the postwar era, selected hardline conservative Takaichi as its new head in a weekend vote. But she must win approval in parliament to become premier later this month. 

That had been seen as fairly straightforward given her coalition had by far the most seats, though it was short of a majority. But with partner Komeito’s exit and opposition parties seeking to unite behind an alternative candidate, her path has suddenly become less certain. 

Following a meeting with Takaichi on Friday, Komeito leader Tetsuo Saito said the two parties’ 26-year partnership had broken down over the LDP’s failure to respond to a political funding scandal that has dogged the ruling group for two years. 

He said Komeito would not support Takaichi in the parliament vote, expected to be held in the second half of October.

Takaichi called Komeito’s decision “extremely regrettable” but said she would do whatever she could to win parliament’s backing.

The political turmoil comes ahead of a number of Japanese diplomatic engagements, with multilateral summits in Malaysia and South Korea, and U.S. President Donald Trump widely expected to visit Japan at the end of the month.

The yen strengthened as much as 0.5% to 152.38 per dollar after the news. It had fallen to an eight-month low earlier this week as investors fretted that Takaichi’s big spending plans would weigh on the world’s fourth-largest economy.

Yoshinobu Tsutsui, head of Japan’s biggest business lobby Keidanren, also lamented Komeito’s decision and said he was worried about political instability.

”With urgent policy challenges piling up at home and abroad and key diplomatic engagements imminent, political stability is indispensable. In this context, it is truly regrettable that Komeito has made this announcement,” he said.

CHALLENGE FROM OPPOSITION

With Komeito gone, Takaichi may seek to broker alliances with other parties such as the centre-right Innovation Party.

But they may think twice, said James Brown, a political science professor at Temple University Japan.

“This is in all likelihood going to be an unpopular and potentially very short-lived government, given the real weaknesses going into it. Do you want to tie your party to that?”

Meanwhile, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party has suggested it may support the charismatic leader from another opposition party Yuichiro Tamaki as a candidate to challenge Takaichi for the premiership.

Tamaki, head of the populist Democratic Party for the People, said in a post on X that he was “prepared to serve as Prime Minister” and was deeply honoured by the CDP’s support.

Opposition parties can put forward their own candidates when parliament meets to vote on the next premier.

Any candidate who secures a simple majority in the first round wins approval. If not, the two candidates with the most votes go into a run-off.

Together the CDP and DPP control 175 seats in the lower house. The LDP is the largest party with 196 seats, 37 short of a majority.

Takaichi’s selection as LDP leader last week dampened market expectations for a near-term interest rate hike, sending stocks higher and weakening the yen. She is known for her staunch support of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” stimulus policies.

“If opposition parties and Komeito team up to choose Tamaki as leader, that will create an administration consisting of an opposition alliance,” said Takahide Kiuchi, an economist at Nomura Research Institute. “The recent market moves that have priced in Takaichi’s economic policy will be rolled back.”

Komeito’s Secretary General Makoto Nishida told a press conference Japan had entered an “era of the multi-party system” and that his party would strive to become “the axis of centrist, reform-oriented political forces.” 

Komeito, a socially liberal party affiliated with a lay Buddhist organisation, had also criticised Takaichi’s tough language on foreigners and visits to the Yasakuni Shrine – seen by neighbours as a symbol of Japan’s past militarism.

Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki, Kantaro Komiya, Leika Kihara and Tim Kelly; Writing by John Geddie; Editing by Kim Coghill, Kate Mayberry and Hugh Lawson

The exercise “sends a clear signal to any potential adversary that we will and can protect and defend all allies against all threats,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said

International News via Reuters:

NATO’s annual nuclear deterrence exercise, Steadfast Noon, will be hosted by the Netherlands and start next week, with 71 aircraft from 14 nations taking part, officials from the Western military alliance said on Friday.

The exercise “sends a clear signal to any potential adversary that we will and can protect and defend all allies against all threats,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said.

Rutte made his remarks in a video message recorded at Volkel airbase in the Netherlands, the main host of this year’s drill.

Bases at Kleine Brogel in Belgium, Lakenheath in Britain and Skrydstrup in Denmark will also be involved, NATO said.

“We need to do this because it helps us to make sure that our nuclear deterrent remains as credible, and as safe, and as secure, and as effective as possible,” Rutte said.

The exercise does not use nuclear weapons but simulates scenarios in which they could be used, NATO officials said.

Since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russian officials have at times warned of the danger of nuclear confrontation with NATO, which has condemned such rhetoric as irresponsible.

In recent weeks, however, nuclear tensions have cooled. Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to maintain for one year the limits on deployed strategic nuclear weapons set out in the New START Treaty, which expires next February.

Jim Stokes, NATO’s director of nuclear policy, told reporters at alliance headquarters in Brussels that Steadfast Noon was “routine” and “not directed at any country”.

“It’s also not linked to any real-world events,” he said.

Reporting by Andrew Gray, Writing by Charlotte Van Campenhout, Editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten, Aidan Lewis