Macron set to name France’s next PM as focus moves to legislative elections

Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce a new prime minister in the coming days as he turns his focus to legislative elections in June after his defeat of Marine Le Pen in the presidential runoff on Sunday.

The prime minister, Jean Castex, has said he will resign along with the government, allowing Macron to choose a fresh face and team for his second five-year term in office.

His victory will be officially confirmed by the country's Constitutional Council on Wednesday. Castex could have been asked to stay on as prime minister, but told French radio earlier this month that France would be looking for a "new driving force" if Macron won.

A poll from Harris Interactive on Monday forecast Macron's party winning 326 to 366 seats, an outright majority in the 577 seat National Assembly, with 117 to 147 seats for the far-right and left-leaning parties reaching between 73 and 93 seats.

Manon Aubry, a LFI MEP, said: "We will create a union around a programme and a project. There are now three blocs in the country, the extreme right, the liberal right and our bloc.

"We have united lots of people behind us in this election and we can do more to give those who feel orphaned a place in our family. That's what the negotiations are about."

Macron has promised to find a response to the anger of those who supported the far right or abstained in the second round.

"I know a lot of my compatriots voted for me because they supported my ideas but also to block the far right's path to power. I want to thank them and tell them I'm aware of the responsibility their vote puts on me in the years to come," he said.

"I'm no longer a candidate from one camp but the president of all. An answer must be found to the anger and disagreements that led many of our compatriots to vote for the far right. It will be my responsibility and that of those around me," he added.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the National Front, said his daughter had done "everything she could".

"It's now half a century that our ideas have progressed," he told French journalists. "There's time to organise the next victory." Marine Le Pen has said the Rassemblement National is getting organised for the next "great battle" in the legislatives.

On Sunday night, Macron's representatives and members of his cabinet all faced the same question: who will be prime minister? All gave the same answer: It's for the president to decide.

Bruno Le Maire, 53The finance minister and former European affairs minister has the advantage of being on the right of centre and a traditionalist. He has been praised for his economic handling of Macron's "whatever it costs" approach to the Covid crisis. Considered a loyal convert to Macronism despite having served in Nicolas Sarkozy's government.

Christine Lagarde, 66The head of the European Central Bank and former director general of the International Monetary Fund, she was Sarkozy's economy minister. Lagarde has the experience and the competence but would be rejected as too economically liberal and globalist by the left, so would be an extremely divisive choice.