French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said that he would nominate a new prime minister within days after politicians caused the collapse of the government for the first time in more than six decades.
The cabinet's priority will be to pass a special budget law before mid-Decemberm, which will allow public services to continue, Mr Macron said in a recorded 10-minute televised address.
"It's necessary to protect the French people from automatic increases caused by inflation, because I refuse that the French people pay the bill," he said. "It's also necessary to allow the country to invest in its army, its judiciary, its police, but also for farmers who were waiting for this budget."
Prime Minister Michel Barnier handed in his resignation earlier on Thursday after the far-right and far-left allied in a no-confidence vote to cause his government to fall after disagreements over the budget, leaving Mr Macron desperately trying to calm a political crisis in the eurozone's second-largest economy.
Possible candidates to replace him include veteran centrist politician Francois Bayrou and Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu, both of whom are considered to be close to the President.
Mr Macron recognised that his decision to call a snap election in June after a European election, which resulted in no clear majority, had been "misunderstood". But despite increasingly criticism, he refused to take responsibility for starting the worsening political crisis.
"I will never shoulder the irresponsibility of others, particularly from lawmakers who chose to cause the government to collapse over the budget, a few days before the Christmas holidays," he said.
Mr Macron, whose mandate ends in 2027, defied calls for his resignation from some left-wing politicians, saying he would stay on for the duration of his mandate. "We have in front of us 30 months until the end of my mandate – 30 months so that the government can act to make France stronger," he said.
Mr Macron accused politicians of causing the cabinet's collapse to prepare for the next presidential election. "They are only thinking of one thing, the presidential election, to prepare it and provoke it with cynicism and a certain sense of chaos," he said.
He ended his speech on an optimistic note as he reminded viewers that France would celebrate on Saturday the reopening of the 800-year old Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris, five years after it nearly burned to the ground in an accidental fire.
"It's proof that we know how to do great things," Mr Macron said, drawing a parallel with the Paris Summer Olympic Games, which were widely hailed as a success.
About 1,500 people have been invited to attend the ceremony, which starts about 7pm local time on Saturday with a speech by Mr Macron outside the cathedral. Advisers to the President said that 35 heads of state have confirmed their attendance, including US president-elect Donald Trump and departing US first lady Jill Biden.
Lebanon's Catholic Maronite Patriarch Bechara Rai and New York's cardinal Timothy Dolan, as well as non-Catholic religious figures, are also expected.
The spiritual ceremony, which will involve singing psalms and a symbolic awakening of the cathedral's doors and organ by Paris's archbishop, Laurent Ulrich, will be followed by outdoor musical celebrations for the general public later in the evening. The reconstruction of the Parisian church is a matter of personal pride for Mr Macron, who has hailed it as a symbol of hope for the country.
After his resignation, Mr Barnier became the shortest-serving prime minister in France's Fifth Republic. The former EU chief Brexit negotiator had tried to push through budget cuts without a vote, a move that can be thwarted by a no-confidence vote.
France's constitution does not allow for parliamentary elections to take place more than once a year, and it is widely expected that the current political instability will lead to new elections next summer.
Yael Braun-Pivet, the president of the National Assembly and a member of Mr Macron’s centrist party, urged the President to move quickly after the Barnier government collapsed. “There must not be any political hesitation,” she told France Inter radio.
While Mr Macron's term runs until 2027 and he retains broad foreign policy powers under France's constitution, the stalemate in the National Assembly leaves no clear way forward in domestic politics.
Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, whose party holds the most seats in the assembly, stopped short of calling for Mr Macron's resignation but warned that “the pressure on the President of the republic will get stronger and stronger". She called him the “main culprit for the current situation”.
Leaders of the left-wing France Unbowed party told Mr Macron to quit. “Even with a Barnier every three months, Macron cannot hold on for three more years,” said three-time presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.
The political turmoil in France further weakens a EU already reeling from the implosion of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition in Germany, which is on course for elections in February.
