Macron hosts UK's Starmer a France's political deadlock goes on
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00:00Well also here in Paris today the French President Emmanuel Macron has welcomed
00:05the British leader Keir Starmer at the Elysee Palace. Now the pair were slated
00:10to discuss Ukraine and the Middle East as well as the relationship between the
00:14EU and the UK four years after the United Kingdom officially left the
00:19bloc. Well that meeting comes as Macron is grappling with political problems far
00:24closer to home as well. After the elections here in early July France is
00:29still without a Prime Minister. Clovis Casali is our political reporter who's
00:33been looking into this sort of stalemate in French politics Clovis and before
00:39he met Starmer this morning Macron sat down with regional leaders from across
00:43France. He's trying to break the deadlock, trying to find a name for Prime
00:47Minister that could be workable for all kinds of different people. How's he
00:51getting on? Well before I answer that let me just tell you about that meeting
00:55Starmer-Macron because it goes back to the very interesting interview we just
00:59heard. Keir Starmer was telling Emmanuel Macron in that courtyard of the Elysee Palace
01:04when he walked in what a great opening ceremony it was for the Paralympics and
01:08how impressed he had been by that night. Yesterday of course Keir Starmer in the
01:13stands with President Macron invited by the French President. Let's try to make
01:17this as interesting now what I'm gonna be telling you about. We're interested in
01:20politics too Clovis. Yes but these talks aren't producing very good results, no
01:25clear-cut results. Regional figures are meeting with the French President this
01:29morning, Carole Delga, a socialist from the Occitanie region, that's the Pyrenees.
01:34There was also Renaud Muselier from the Provence and David Lysnow is the
01:38President of the Association of Mayors. Why is Emmanuel Macron meeting these
01:42people? Because he's trying to consult and meet with as many politicians or
01:48figures as possible to try to come up with a name, try to see who would get
01:53some kind of backing at the National Assembly in order for him of course to
01:57appoint a new Prime Minister. It might also be a way for the French President
02:01to show less of a Paris-centric approach if you will, say that he's listening to
02:07what people in the regions are saying and also try to find some kind of
02:12solution. At the end of the meeting Carole Delga, who's this socialist
02:17politician, quite powerful in the party even though she's an opponent of the
02:21party leader Olivier Faure. Carole Delga came to see us journalists outside the
02:26Elysee Palace and gave us an idea of who she thinks should be the next Prime
02:30Minister. Take a listen to Carole Delga.
02:34Bernard Cazeneuve is a statesman, a man of the left. He's capable of implementing
02:40left-wing policies and bringing people together. But we have to be clear that
02:44there won't be the NFP's program, at least not all our policies. We don't have
02:49an absolute majority and at some point we have to stop peddling the French
02:53people a fantasy. Well the name that she gave there was Bernard Cazeneuve. Tell
02:59us a bit about him Clovis. And she repeated Cazeneuve, that name, to us
03:02outside the Elysee Palace as she did that morning also, this morning on that
03:07set of TF1. Who is Bernard Cazeneuve? Former Prime Minister, former Interior
03:11Minister during the Paris attacks of 2015 against the Bataclan music venue.
03:17And that gives him some kind of authority. He's respected by the centre,
03:21the right, even in some ways by the far-right. Bernard Cazeneuve also left
03:27the Socialist Party when the Socialists made that alliance with the radical
03:31left of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. So it means he does have quite a lot of respect on
03:36the political spectrum, but not necessarily the backing of all of the
03:39left wing. But he's still one name that keeps coming up and it could be a
03:43possible option for President Emmanuel Macron. So you think the most likely
03:47then is that we will see a candidate from the left emerging? I'm no wizard, I
03:52don't really know. I think what everybody thinks is that the left wing came
03:58first in the past snap elections. They finished ahead, they did not get an
04:01outright majority. That's why they can't impose their candidate to
04:05President Macron. But yes, they finished first and therefore it would be
04:09logical. Yesterday, former President François Hollande was saying it's a
04:13constitutional fault, political mistake not to name a left-wing figure. If
04:19Emmanuel Macron doesn't have a choice ultimately, if no name gets some kind of
04:24backing from a majority of MPs, I think he's going to have to pick someone from
04:27the left wing. And it would also be a way to respect the vote of the French
04:32people who did put the left wing ahead. You remember there was the Republican
04:36Front. These candidates getting together, backing one another to
04:41prevent the far-right from coming into power. A lot of left-wing candidates
04:45enabled centrist candidates of Emmanuel Macron to win. There's a lot of
04:49bargaining there, a lot of negotiations. We should know in the next few days,
04:52hopefully before Sunday.