France's Emmanuel Macron was on Friday due to pick a head of government tasked with pulling the country out of a political gridlock, in a move that staves off fresh elections for now.
French politics have been deadlocked ever since Macron took the gamble last year of snap polls that he hoped would consolidate power -- but ended instead in a hung parliament and more seats for the far right.
Macron was due to meet with leaders of all political parties apart from the far-right National Rally (RN) and the radical left France Unbowed party at 1230 GMT on Friday at the presidential palace, informed sources told AFP.
Macron's office said he would pick a name by Friday evening after his seventh prime minister Sebastien Lecornu threw in the towel on Monday following months of stalemate over an austerity budget.
The centrist president, facing the worst domestic crisis of his presidency since 2017, has yet to address the public.
Lecornu, a Macron loyalist, agreed to stay on for two extra days to talk to all political parties and told French television late Wednesday that he was optimistic that a new cabinet could get a spending bill through parliament.
His two predecessors were toppled in a standoff over spending bills, and a new cabinet lineup he unveiled on Sunday was criticised for not breaking enough with the past.
Lecornu, who served three years as defence minister, offered no clue over who the next premier would be.
He claimed his mission was finished, but several politicians believe the president could rename him, at the risk of exasperating the opposition and triggering another no-confidence vote.
Others have said Jean-Louis Borloo, a former minister under right-wing presidents Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy, could be a potential candidate.
But the 74-year-old centrist said on Thursday he had heard nothing of it and had "zero" contact with the president's office.
Could former Socialist prime minister Bernard Cazeneuve be the man for the job? Or could the head of the country's supreme audit institution, another Socialist named Pierre Moscovici, help straighten the country's finances?
Lecornu has said a revised draft budget for 2026 could be presented to a council of ministers on Monday, the deadline for the bill to pass parliament by the end of the year.
This would imply a new cabinet being announced by the end of the weekend.
Lecornu on Wednesday suggested that a more technocratic government could be named, whose members should have no "ambitions" to stand in the 2027 presidential elections.
The escalating crisis has seen former allies criticise the president.
Former premier Edouard Philippe, a contender in the next presidential elections, earlier this week said Macron himself should step down after a budget was passed.
But Macron has always insisted he would stay until the end of his term.
Marine Le Pen, whose far-right party declined to take part in talks with Lecornu this week, said Wednesday she would thwart all action by any new government and would "vote against everything".
Le Pen's anti-immigration RN senses its best ever chance of winning power in the 2027 presidential elections, with Macron having served the maximum two terms.
Le Pen has been barred from running after being convicted in a corruption case, but her 30-year-old lieutenant Jordan Bardella could be a candidate instead.
