The president argued that the left's candidates for premier, including Lucie Castets, would not survive a no-confidence vote in France's deeply divided parliament

France edged closer to having a new government, more than two months after a hung election, as new Prime Minister Michel Barnier's office said he had pulled together a list of ministers he will submit to President Emmanuel Macron later on Thursday.

Michel Barnier has become France’s favourite political figure, according to a surprise new poll, in a boost to the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator two weeks after president Emmanuel Macron appointed him prime minister.

Mélenchon’s strategy of uniting with Macron in the name of blocking the rise of the far right proved disastrous for the working class, paving the way for the forming of a far right government.

The end of the Olympics also closed out the feel-good limbo that had frozen French politics. Now President Emmanuel Macron and his newly chosen prime minister will have to figure out how to govern a France that looks on the verge of ungovernability.