French President Emmanuel Macron faced mounting pressure Wednesday to resolve his deepest domestic crisis yet, after his former prime minister and one-time ally called for his resignation.
Macron, who has been in power since 2017, has failed to lift the country out of political deadlock after snap elections last year ended in a hung parliament and increased seats for the far-right.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, the third premier since those polls, on Monday threw in the towel just hours after broad rejection of his new Cabinet.
But Macron convinced him to stay on until Wednesday evening to try to form a coalition government able to pass a much-needed austerity budget through parliament, with public debt at an all-time high.
Lercornu was expected to make a public statement on the state of discussions Wednesday morning, before receiving representatives of the Socialist party.
