< p>President Emmanuel Macron has invited party leaders from both houses of the French parliament for talks on August 23 with a view to appointing a new prime minister, his office said, quoted by Reuters.
After a surprise election on July 7 that produced a parliament without a clear majority and hammered Macron's centrist coalition, the government of outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal led France through the Paris Olympics.
Winning a political truce during the Olympics, Macron must appoint a prime minister by mid-August. So far, he has ignored the candidate endorsed by the leftist alliance, the New People's Front, which won first place in the election.
The aim of the meetings next Friday with the leaders of the parliamentary factions in the National Assembly and the Senate is "to build the broadest and most stable majority possible to serve the country," Macron's office said in a statement.
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"In the legislative elections, the French people expressed their desire for change and a broad consensus. In a spirit of responsibility, all political leaders must work to fulfill this desire," the statement added, noting that these talks would be followed by the appointment of a new prime minister.
A source close to Macron told Reuters this month that the president believed the vote had produced a National Assembly whose center of gravity was in the center or right, and that the new prime minister should be able to find common ground with moderates from the entire political spectrum.