Paris (AFP) - President Emmanuel Macron on Friday sat down with party leaders on the left and right in a bid to hammer out a compromise that would give France a new prime minister and a path out of crisis.

Macron adopted a defiant tone in an address to the nation on Thursday evening, 24 hours after Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government had been ousted in a historic no-confidence vote.

He vowed to name a new prime minister in the “coming days”, rejected growing pressure from the opposition to resign and blamed an “anti-republican front” of the hard left and far right for France’s woes.

Barnier stepped down as contemporary France’s shortest-serving premier after Wednesday’s successful parliamentary no-confidence vote, a first in more than six decades.

“I will appoint a prime minister in the coming days,” Macron said, adding that a “government of general interest” would be formed to pass a budget.

Barnier, premier for only three months, will remain in charge on a caretaker basis until a new government is appointed, as will his ministers.

Macron on Friday met leaders of the parliamentary factions of his own centrist forces, the Socialist Party and the right-wing Republicans.

The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) and far-right National Rally (RN) have not so far been invited to talks.

People close to the presidency said, however, that Macron would speak with the leaders of the Communist Party, the Greens and LFI on the telephone at a later stage.

Macron has an additional incentive to limit political chaos as on Saturday he hosts world leaders – including US president-elect Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – for the reopening of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris after a devastating 2019 fire.

- ‘Can’t bring the country to a halt’ -

Macron, who has long hoped to split the traditional Socialists from their pact with the LFI, received a boost when Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure said he was ready to negotiate with the president’s centrists and the right.

After their meeting, Faure said Macron had “absolutely not” asked him to jettison his alliance with LFI.

Faure said he himself was ready for “compromise on all subjects”, including the thorny subject of pension reform.

“We need to find a solution because we can’t bring the country to a halt for months,” he said.

Any cooperation would, however, be conditional on Macron appointing a left-of-centre prime minister, said Faure, categorically ruling out backing any rightist premier.

Faure did not appear to have the backing of his leftist allies. LFI’s veteran firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon said his party had given the Socialists “no mandate” to negotiate a deal with Macron.

Green party boss Marine Tondelier called on Faure not to “walk into the trap” she said Macron had set.

Right-wing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau drew his own red line, saying the right would “make no compromise” with the left, which he accused of betraying its principles by entering into the pact with the LFI.

Barnier’s ejection in record time came after snap parliamentary elections in June resulted in a hung parliament.

The trigger for the ouster was his 2025 budget plan, including austerity measures unacceptable to a majority in parliament.

- Macron says he won’t go -

Barnier is Macron’s fifth prime minister, their tenures having become increasingly brief. Given the polarised parliament, there is no guarantee that Barnier’s successor will last any longer.

Loyalist Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu and Macron’s centrist ally Francois Bayrou are possible contenders, as is former Socialist premier and interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve.

Marine Le Pen, parliamentary leader of the RN, on Friday warned that her deputies would vote to depose the next government if the new prime minister failed to meet their budgetary demands.

“Let nobody think that my hands are tied,” she told the Le Figaro daily. “There’s nothing to stop me from voting for another no-confidence motion.”

Constitutional rules means new legislative elections cannot be called until July.

Two polls suggest that a clear majority of French people want Macron, who has two-and-a-half years left in office, to go early.

The president has rejected such calls, saying he would exercise the remainder of his five-year mandate “fully, right up to the end” and vowing “30 months of useful action for the country”.

Financial markets appeared to welcome Macron’s apparent determination to take charge.

The key index on the Paris Bourse, the CAC-40, closed up 1.3 percent Friday.