Macron to name new PM within 48 hours amid deepening political crisis

French outgoing prime minister Sebastien Lecornu makes a statement at the Hotel Matignon, the Prime Minister’s residence (Stephanie Lecocq, Pool via AP)

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that he will name a new prime minister in the next 48 hours, for now rejecting other options in the face of a political storm.

The naming of a replacement for outgoing prime minister Sebastien Lecornu, who abruptly resigned on Monday, will — at least for now — move France away from the likelihood of snap legislative elections, another possibility that is available to the French leader but which could plunge the EU’s second-largest economy into even greater uncertainty.