PARIS — The mission of Sebastien Lecornu, France’s caretaker prime minister, to save Emmanuel Macron’s presidency from a deepening crisis ran into roadblocks Tuesday as several parties showed little appetite for compromise to end the political impasse.

Macron asked the outgoing premier to have one last attempt — with a deadline of Wednesday evening — to bring together opposing parties to give France “stability” as a budget is urgently needed to curb a growing debt burden and reassure investors.

But the Socialists and the center-right Republicans have ruled out an accord that would see them in government together.

Macron’s close ally and his first prime minister, Edouard Philippe, said on Tuesday that the president should instead take the more radical step of offering to resign before the end of his term in 2027 on the condition of a budget being adopted.

“He would honor himself if he appointed a prime minister whose role would be to handle current affairs and to draft a budget,” Philippe said on RTL. “Once France has a budget he would then announce that he is organizing an early presidential election.”

Lecornu unexpectedly quit early Monday, blaming the intransigence of antagonistic political groups — including Macron’s centrist minority — for their failure to agree to a new Cabinet, which was unveiled Sunday evening.

Macron later asked the premier to have another shot at finding a path out of France’s political impasse. That buys the president a little more time to figure out his next steps, which could include fresh legislative elections that opposition groups are clamoring for, or his resignation — a move Macron has until now repeatedly refused to contemplate.

Lecornu’s office said in a statement Tuesday after talks with centrist allies that they had agreed that the budget is a top priority along with France’s overseas territory of New Caledonia.

“Everyone agreed on these two urgent priorities with a shared will to find a swift resolution,” his office said. “This was followed by an exchange on the budgetary emergency and the parameters of a possible compromise with the opposition parties.”

Successive French governments have struggled to hold on to power since Macron’s ill-fated gamble on snap elections last year further hobbled his own centrist group and split the National Assembly into irreconcilable blocs.

Lawmakers in the lower house forced the resignation of both the previous premiers — Michel Barnier and Francois Bayrou — over budget plans, and were preparing to do the same to Lecornu as soon as this week.

The deadlock has already thwarted attempts to rein in what has become the largest budget deficit in the euro area, fueling selloffs of French assets and driving up the country’s borrowing costs relative to peers.

The latest collapse means the government will struggle to meet the deadline to file a budget by Oct. 13, making it likely emergency measures will be needed to avoid a shutdown in January.

France’s yield premium over German 10-year debt rose to around 86 basis points on Tuesday, the highest since early January. In the spring of 2024, before Macron called elections, the gap was as low as 43 basis points.

Marine Le Pen’s National Rally reiterated its position on Tuesday that the only solution to the crisis is to call legislative elections or for Macron to resign as it sees an opportunity to build on the gains it registered in the last snap vote in 2024.

“Today, we are in a position not only to win potential legislative elections, but also to win potential presidential elections,” Jordan Bardella, Le Pen’s protege in the National Rally, said on BFMTV.

Le Pen and Bardella declined on Tuesday to meet again with Lecornu. “These endless negotiations are no longer aimed at protecting the interests of the French people, but those of the president of the republic himself,” they said in a statement.

The Socialists aren’t pushing for fresh elections, rather they’re saying they should lead the next government. On Tuesday, the party called on Macron to name a prime minister “who will form a left-wing and environmentalist government.”

But Bruno Retailleau, the head of the Republicans and the outgoing interior minister, said on Monday that it is out of the question for his group to endorse a left-wing Cabinet.

Eric Ciotti, head of a right-wing group allied with her National Rally, said those parties had agreed at a meeting Monday they would censure any government proposed by Macron.

“We’ve come to the end of the road. We need to go back to voters, they must decide,” Le Pen said.

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—With assistance from Samy Adghirni.

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