PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is searching for a new prime minister capable of holding together a fragile accord among rival lawmakers to deliver an urgently needed budget.

Picking a premier to replace Sebastien Lecornu is the next step in a week of frantic deal-making and political infighting that began with the collapse of Macron’s latest government on Monday, less than 24 hours after it was appointed.

On Wednesday evening, Lecornu presented Macron with an outline for a deal on policy he said could form the basis for a new prime minister to be appointed by Friday evening. It leaves the door open to significant reversals of the president’s economic agenda, including a suspension of the 2023 pension reform, tax increases for the rich and more deficit spending.

Those policy changes are a condition to get a level of support from the Socialists, whose lawmakers have a pivotal role in whether any government can survive no-confidence votes in parliament.

Macron’s pick isn’t easy. The Socialists are demanding a prime minister from the left, but the center right say they would oppose that and the far right and far left say they will try to topple whoever Macron picks.

To square the circle, Macron needs someone above the political fray, yet with the political skill to navigate France’s acrimonious National Assembly.

Here’s a look at some possibilities, presuming the president doesn’t opt for another Lecornu premiership.

Bernard Cazeneuve

Cazeneuve’s political history offers Macron a bridge to keep the left on board while not necessarily pushing the center right into total opposition with the new government.

The 62-year-old served in government under President Francois Hollande, but has since stepped back from front-line politics and distanced himself from the new generation of Socialists.

In 2023, Cazeneuve formed his own political movement know as ‘La Convention’ that aims to provide a “credible and ambitious” alternative for the left. He has said he remains in opposition to Macron’s core pro-business policies.

Yet Macron already considered appointing Cazeneuve prime minister last year in an effort to bring the left on board, before opting for the Republicans’ Michel Barnier.

For Cazeneuve, it would be a second turn as premier after a short stint in the final months of Hollande’s presidency.

Pierre Moscovici

Moscovici, 68, has a similar background to Cazeneuve, having served as Hollande’s first finance minister before stepping into more technical roles from 2014.

He spent five years as European commissioner for economic affairs and returned to France in 2020 to lead the state audit court, Cour des Comptes.

Moscovici would likely be more fiscally hawkish than Cazeneuve. He has repeatedly warned that France urgently needs to tackle its growing debt burden and recently called on any government not to deviate far from the sharp deficit reduction path set out by former Premier Francois Bayrou.

Speaking on France Inter radio in September, Moscovici said he had recently refused an offer to become finance minister again.

Francois Villeroy de Galhau

The Bank of France governor has often been touted in French media as a technocratic option for government.

A former chief operating officer at BNP Paribas SA, he was selected by Hollande to run France’s central bank in 2014 and reappointed by Macron for a second six-year term in 2021.

Villeroy cautioned recently that France cannot afford to delay efforts to rein in the deficit as the economy risks being “suffocated by debt.”

Most of the effort to improve France’s financial position must come from controlling spending, he has argued. But in a nod to Socialist demands for a wealth tax, he’s also said there is margin for greater “tax fairness.”

Eric Lombard

Finance minister in Bayrou’s government, Lombard played a central role negotiating concessions on the 2025 budget with the Socialists.

The 67-year-old has historic ties to the center left and spent years working with lawmakers when he led Caisse des Depots et Consignations — a public financial institution that answers to parliament.

Appointing Lombard prime minister would signal another U-turn after Macron did not renew him in Lecornu’s short-lived Cabinet.

Still, the day before his departure, Lombard sketched out plans to get a deal with the left, including making the wealthy pay more tax, improving the 2023 pension law and supporting spending power.

“The proposals of political groups have shown avenues for possible compromise with several forces on the left, starting with the Socialist Party,” Lombard said last week in a post on X.

Raphael Glucksmann

Raphael Glucksmann, a 45-year old member of the European Parliament, is a rising star in the left. He’s widely viewed as holding moderate positions, but in an op-ed last year, he blamed free-trade for de-industrialization and Europe’s dependence on other regions for microchips. Co-founder of Place Publique, a leftist movement, he has long advocated for higher taxers on the rich.

He’s a staunch supporter of Ukraine and said earlier this year that the U.S. should give back the Statue of Liberty because the country no longer represents the values that prompted France to offer the statue.

He is the son of philosopher Andre Glucksmann.

Carole Delga

Carole Delga, 54, is the Socialist president of the Occitanie region in southern France and has been cited as a potential candidate for the 2027 presidential election. Delga is a critic of the far left, especially its leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, whom she said scares the French more than Marine Le Pen’s National Rally.

She briefly served as consumer affairs minister during Hollande’s presidency, in the government of pro-business Prime Minister Manuel Valls.

In a message on X on Thursday, she said the era of power being concentrated in the hands of the president is over. “Let’s focus on parliament putting together and voting a budget for 2026,” she wrote.

Jean-Louis Borloo

Jean-Louis Borloo, 74, is a former lawmaker and minister under conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.

He has championed environmental causes and is seen as having moderate views on immigration.

However, his prospects might be dimmed by a difficult relationship with Macron, who in 2018 dismissed a report Borloo had prepared on improving conditions in underprivileged suburbs.

Olivier Faure

The Socialist Party’s current leader, Olivier Faure, has for months said he wants to be prime minister. He said he would be willing to keep some centrist ministers appointed by Macron in his Cabinet if he got the job.

A lawmaker since 2012, the 57-year-old was key in building a broad left-wing alliance during parliamentary elections last year.

But an explicit turn to the Socialists could raise problems with the center-right Republicans whose lawmakers may have the deciding votes in whether the next premier stands or falls.

Unknown Wildcard

Macron could also opt for someone unknown to the public. Before appointing Barnier in September 2024, French media reported that Macron had at one point offered the job to Thierry Beaudet, the little-known head of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council.

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