Is France heading toward ‘powder-keg situation’? PM to face ‘significant political, social problems’

President Emmanuel Macron on Monday intensified efforts to find a new prime minister after almost two months of deadlock following inconclusive legislative elections, hosting two former presidents and two potential candidates. France has been without a permanent government since the July 7 legislative polls where the left formed the largest faction in a hung parliament with Macron’s centrists and the far right comprising the other major groups. To the fury of the left, Macron has refused to accept the nomination of a left-wing premier, arguing such a figure would have no chance of surviving a confidence motion in parliament. Instead, the president, who has less than three years in power, has happily run down the clock as the Olympics and Paralympics took place, to the growing frustration of opponents. But amid signs of an acceleration as France returns from holidays, Macron early Monday hosted Bernard Cazeneuve, a former leading Socialist who headed the government in the final months of Socialist Francois Hollande’s 2012-17 presidential term, an AFP journalist said. Cazeneuve is regarded by commentators as the figure most likely to be named by Macron, but his appointment is far from a foregone conclusion. As Macron takes the unprecedented step of consulting with his two  predecessors, by no means his allies, to break the historic two-month deadlock, FRANCE 24’s Genie Godula is joined by Paul Smith, Associate Professor in French History and Politics at the University of Nottingham.