French President Emmanuel Macron has met with right-wing politician Marine Le Pen amid growing pressure to appoint a new Prime Minister. This comes in the wake of the parliamentary elections in July, where no party was able to achieve a majority.

Since Friday, Macron has invited political leaders to negotiations, hoping to find a consensus candidate who would not immediately face a vote of no confidence. Gabriel Attal, who was appointed Prime Minister only in January, is currently serving as the caretaker leader until a new candidate is chosen.

In last month’s parliamentary elections, the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition won the most seats with 190, while Macron’s Renaissance party came in second with 160 seats, and Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally secured 140 seats. This result followed a concerted effort by the NFP and Macron’s centrists to prevent the National Rally from taking a leading position. Nevertheless, none of the parties are close to the 289 seats required to govern without forming a coalition.

The NFP argues that since they won the most seats, they should have the opportunity to choose the new Prime Minister, and they have nominated Lucie Castets, 37, as their candidate. However, Macron’s party, along with the conservatives and the far-right, has pledged to vote against a left-leaning government proposal.

This has led Olivier Faure, the leader of the Socialist Party, to state that his party does not wish to “participate in a show with loaded dice” against the left. As a possible compromise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the left-wing party France Unbowed (LFI), announced on Saturday that his party would support a left-leaning government led by Castets, but without any LFI ministers.

Macron has previously referred to the LFI as an “extreme movement” in an attempt to equate it with the right-wing National Rally. French news outlet Le Monde reported that, following Mélenchon’s offer, Macron will now find it more difficult to justify his exclusion of the NFP.

With a deadline for presenting a draft budget for 2025 just over a month away, Macron now faces the urgent need to make a decision on whom to nominate.