PARIS, September 9. /TASS/. French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou will head to the Elysee Palace on Tuesday at midday (10:00 a.m. GMT) to submit his resignation to the republic’s president, Emmanuel Macron, BFMTV reported.
"Around midday," the French TV channel quoted an official close to the French prime minister as saying. According to him, Bayrou has already prepared the text of his request. However, even after the president accepts the resignation of Bayrou and his government, ministers will continue to perform their duties until the head of state appoints a new prime minister and a new cabinet is formed. La Tribune reported earlier that the Elysee Palace expects the president to appoint a new prime minister before his departure for a UN General Assembly meeting in New York on September 21.
Media reports are already speculating who may replace Bayrou, saying that politicians closest to the president, including Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu, Minister for Health Catherine Vautrin, Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, and Minister for the Economy and Finance Eric Lombard, as well as Pierre Moscovici, the former European Commissioner and first president of the Court of Audit, and Xavier Bertrand, president of the regional council of Hauts-de-France, may be considered.
Opposition leaders have already announced their ambitions to form a new government, and Marine Le Pen, head of the parliamentary faction of the National Rally party, said the party leader, Jordan Bardella, is ready to become prime minister.
After Bayrou failed a confidence vote, Marine Tondelier, the leader of the Ecologists, also called on Macron to receive leftist leaders before appointing a new prime minister, and Olivier Faure, the leader of the Socialist Party, openly said his party is ready to form its own government.