By Stacy Meichtry and Noemie Bisserbe

PARIS -- President Emmanuel Macron is moving to name a new prime minister rather than calling snap elections, an approach that buys time for the country's political establishment to pull France out of its fiscal disarray.

Macron had been wielding the unspoken threat of dissolving the National Assembly and holding parliamentary elections after his latest prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, abruptly resigned Monday amid bickering over his cabinet choices.

With the country on a knife's edge, Macron then ordered Lecornu to make a last-ditch attempt to persuade France's rowdy political parties to back a fresh government that can pass a budget by the end of the year.

On Wednesday, Lecornu reported back to the Elysée Palace, telling Macron it was possible for him to name a new prime minister within the next 48 hours -- a plan that Macron's office later confirmed.

"I feel that a path forward is possible," Lecornu said in a TV interview on Wednesday evening. "I told the president that the prospect of dissolving parliament was receding."

France has been ensnared in political turmoil since Macron called snap elections in 2024 that produced the most fragmented National Assembly in the history of France's modern Fifth Republic.

Since then, Macron has churned through four different prime ministers, struggling to pass annual budgets and narrow the country's yawning deficit. The gridlock has resulted in a rise in France's borrowing costs, reaching levels similar to the eurozone's debt-laden periphery.

Naming a new prime minister will require Macron to thread a needle between political factions that wield enough votes to bring a government down in a confidence vote. The National Assembly is broadly divided into three blocs with opposing views. There is an array of left-wing parties ranging from far-left France Unbowed to the Socialists; a center-right bloc consisting of Macron's party, its allies and conservative lawmakers; and far-right leader Marine Le Pen and her allies.

Left-leaning parties are demanding Macron suspend a signature pension overhaul in exchange for their support. The measure, which gradually raises the retirement age from 62 to 64, was passed in 2023 after a drawn-out battle.

"Suspending the pension reform would be a humiliating concession for Macron," said Mujtaba Rahman, head of Europe for risk consulting firm Eurasia. It would also increase France's deficit by 3 billion euros in 2027, he added.

According to a recent report by the French state auditor, that number would go up to EUR13 billion by 2035.

"I told the president we will have to find a way to ensure a debate on the pension reform takes place," Lecornu said.

Any move to roll back the pension overhaul, however, risks weakening Macron's already-fragile centrist coalition and alienating the conservative Les Républicains party, which has been the linchpin of parliamentary support for Macron's governments over the past year.

"That's a red line for us," Les Républicains senator Agnès Evren said.

Whomever Macron picks as prime minister will face stern opposition from Le Pen, whose party wields the most votes in the National Assembly. Le Pen has been calling for new elections or Macron's resignation. She declined a meeting with Lecornu this week, saying there was nothing further to discuss and that she would oppose any new government until Macron dissolves parliament.

"The joke has gone on long enough," she told reporters on Wednesday.

Write to Stacy Meichtry at Stacy.Meichtry@wsj.com and Noemie Bisserbe at noemie.bisserbe@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 08, 2025 16:44 ET (20:44 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.