France's Macron holds talks with key political players in a bid to form a new government

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France's Macron holds talks with key political players in a bid to form a new government

2024-08-23 19:47 Last Updated At：20:00

PARIS (AP) — After the excitement of the Paris Olympics and a Mediterranean vacation, now French President Emmanuel Macron has to figure out how to make his country governable again.

Faced with a hung parliament, social tensions and ballooning debt, Macron kicked off talks Friday with key political players in a bid to choose a new prime minister who would form a government and end the deadlock created by snap legislative elections last month.

Members of the left-wing New Popular Front coalition that won the most seats pressured Macron for a quick decision. Their nominee for prime minister, little-known civil servant Lucie Castets, said after Friday's meetings in the Elysee Palace that she was ready to govern, and ready for compromise to get things done.

But the party only has about a third of the seats in the National Assembly, France's powerful lower house of parliament, and no party has a majority. Macron’s centrist alliance came in second and the far-right National Rally came in third.

There's no rulebook that requires Macron to name a candidate from the party that won the most seats, or lays out a timeline for a decision. The absence of any dominant political bloc is unprecedented in France’s modern Republic.

Centrists and conservatives are also meeting with Macron on Friday, while National Rally leaders Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella are expected at the Elysee on Monday. Macron’s office said he will name a prime minister based these consultations, which are aimed at “moving towards the broadest and most stable majority possible.”

Castets said that in her meeting with Macron, he “recognized that a message was sent by the French during the elections” but seemed reluctant to allow an opposition party to form a government.

Left-wing leaders have decried Macron's decision to delay the prime minister nomination while he spent time at the Olympics and at the presidential holiday retreat in Bregancon on the French Riviera.

"We need a response Tuesday," said the national secretary of the Greens party, Marine Tondelier. “There are urgent issues, and leaving weeks roll by without facing them is grave, and even irresponsible.”

The New Popular Front, which includes the hard-left France Unbowed, the Socialists and the Greens, has insisted that the prime minister should come out of their ranks as the largest group.

Macron last month appeared to dismiss Castets, saying in a televised interview “the issue is not a name provided by a political group” and stressing instead the need for a parliamentary majority behind the candidate.

Politicians from the center, the right and the far right have suggested they would try to bring down any government that includes members from France Unbowed.

Macron appears more keen to seek a coalition that could include politicians from the center-left to the traditional right.

Other names that have emerged in French media as potential prime minister candidates include center-left politician Bernard Cazeneuve, who served as France’s top cop during a series of bloody terror attacks in 2015, and Xavier Bertrand, a former minister considered relatively moderate within the French right. Conservative politician Michel Barnier, EU’s chief negotiator for post-Brexit talks, is also considered a potential candidate.

As president, Macron has sole power to name the prime minister according to the French Constitution.

The French president said last month he would keep the outgoing centrist government on a purely caretaker role to “handle current affairs,'' notably during the Olympics that ended on Aug. 11.

Nicolas Garriga and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

A scenic California mountain town walloped by a blizzard is now threatened by wildfire

2024-09-13 10:36 Last Updated At：10:41

RUNNING SPRINGS, Calif. (AP) — In the Southern California mountain town of Running Springs, residents live between two scenic lake resorts — a seemingly serene spot but one also caught between the swings of devastating winter snowstorms and menacing summer wildfires.

Niko Rynard is currently evacuated from his home due to the Line Fire, which has charred 58 square miles (150 square km) since the weekend.

About a year and a half ago, the director of the Running Springs Area Chamber of Commerce raced down the mountains during a break in the relentless snowfall his neighbors came to call “Snowmageddon.” Roads were blocked for days.

The 29-year-old, who moved to the area nine years ago from the East Coast, is now staying with friends nearby but said others are shelling out hundreds of dollars to cram into hotel rooms until it's safe to return.

The blaze is one of three major wildfires that have ravaged the mountains east of Los Angeles, destroying dozens of homes and forcing the evacuations of thousands of people. While California is only now confronting the height of wildfire season, the state already has seen nearly three times as much acreage burn than during all of 2023.

Much of this, Rynard said, “comes with the territory” and is part of living in a beautiful area. He said long-time residents have told him the massive wildfires are cyclical, much like the snow.

To add to people's rattled nerves, Southern California was rocked by a 4.7-magnitude earthquake Thursday morning.

Running Springs is dubbed the “gateway to the San Bernardino Mountains” and perched more than a mile high. The town was among the communities snowed in when a blizzard walloped the area in 2023. Now, the community has been doused with bright fire-red retardant to protect it.

“It can be tough to live in these environments,” said Dawn Rowe, a San Bernardino County supervisor whose district covers mountain communities. “It’s beautiful — a lot of people come to visit and they find they might want to relocate for one reason or another. I would encourage everybody to spend an amount of time doing their due diligence.”

The Line Fire is burning through dense vegetation that grew after two back-to-back wet winters that included snowstorms that caused tree branches to break, leaving behind a lot of “dead and down fuel,” said Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Jed Gaines. Another wildfire threatened the mountain community of Wrightwood about a 50-mile (80-kilometer) drive to the west.

The fires have threatened tens of thousands of homes and other structures across Southern California since they escalated during a triple-digit heat wave over the weekend. Cooler weather was helping firefighters slowly gain the upper hand in battling the blazes. No deaths have been reported, but at least a dozen people, mainly firefighters, have been treated for injuries, mostly heat-related, authorities said.

In one daring rescue caught on video, Cal Fire Riverside County Battalion Chief Mike Martinez saved a lone woman walking within feet of the Airport Fire in Orange County, driving his SUV up to the edge of the blistering flames so she could enter the vehicle.

“This is one of those moments ... you hope you never come across,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years. We’re used to extreme fire behavior but to see a civilian walking down the middle of the street was surreal.”

Jason Anderson, district attorney for San Bernardino County, said Thursday that nine arson-related charges have been filed against a suspect accused of starting the Line Fire.

“This is particularly galling in a community that unfortunately over the last couple of years has dealt with the scourge of wildfires,” he told reporters, adding that the suspect’s vehicle has been linked to three areas where fires were started.

The suspect is due to be arraigned in court on Friday.

The full extent of the damage caused by the wildfires remains unclear. The three blazes are:

— The Airport Fire in Orange County, which has burned more than 36 square miles (93 square kilometers). The fire was 5% contained Thursday morning and was reportedly sparked by workers using heavy equipment in the area. Ten firefighters and two residents were injured in the blaze, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. The fire has been difficult to tame because of the steep terrain and dry conditions — and because some areas hadn’t burned in decades.

— The Line Fire in the San Bernardino National Forest, which was 18% contained Thursday and has threatened more than 65,000 homes. The blaze has injured three firefighters.

— The Bridge Fire east of Los Angeles, which grew tenfold in a day and has burned 80 square miles (207 square km), torched at least 33 homes and six cabins and forced the evacuation of 10,000 people. The cause of the fire is not yet known. It remained zero percent contained Thursday.

In northern Nevada, the worst danger appears to have passed near Reno where a wildfire on the Sierra’s eastern front forced 20,000 evacuations over the weekend. The blaze closed all schools for four days and threatened to burn over the top of the mountains into the Lake Tahoe basin.

Part of the state highway from Reno to Tahoe remained closed Thursday. Authorities further relaxed evacuation orders after 600 firefighters held fire lines despite winds gusting up to 70 mph (112 kph) the day before and bolstered containment of the 9-square-mile (23-square-kilometer) Davis Fire, now estimated at 37%. Most of the 8,000 residents that began the day under evacuation orders were downgraded to evacuation warnings, allowing them to begin to return to their homes.

“All containment lines ... are holding at this time,” Jason Clawson, an operations section chief for the federal firefighting team said at a briefing in Reno late Thursday. “Absolutely no concerns. We have crews, equipment, engines all spread out around the entire fire.”

Garcia reported from Wrightwood, California, Taxin from Santa Ana, California, and Rodriguez from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Scott Sonner in Reno, Nevada; Amy Hanson in Helena, Montana; Jaimie Ding in Los Angeles and Thomas Peipert in Denver contributed.