French President Emmanuel Macron is considering who to appoint as prime minister to replace Michel Barnier, who officially resigned a day after opposition politicians voted to topple his government.
Here are some of the possible candidates whose names are circulating in political circles and in French media:
Sebastien Lecornu
Sebastian Lecornu defected from the centre-right The Republicans party and rallied behind Mr Macron’s 2017 presidency, becoming one of his staunchest allies.
Mr Lecornu joined the government alongside Bruno Le Maire, President Macron’s long-serving finance minister, and former interior minister Gerald Darmanin who had also both defected from the conservatives.
The 38-year-old, most recently served as defence minister in Mr Barnier’s government, overseeing increases in defence spending and France’s support of military aid to Ukraine.
Investigative news website Mediapart and newspaper Liberation reported that he had dined earlier in the year with Mr Macron’s arch-rival, Marine Le Pen, of the far-right National Rally (RN), and they had discussed the war in Ukraine.
Mr Lecornu denied the encounter took place.
Francois Bayrou
Francois Bayrou is a centrist veteran whose Democratic Movement (MoDem) party has been a part of President Macron’s ruling alliance since 2017.
The 73-year-old, a longtime mayor of the south-western town of Pau who has made his rural roots central to his political identity, decided against a fourth presidential run in 2017, instead rallying behind Mr Macron.
The president appointed Mr Bayrou as justice minister, but he resigned weeks later amid an investigation into his party’s alleged fraudulent employment of parliamentary assistants.
He was cleared of fraud charges this year.
Bernard Cazeneuve
Bernard Cazeneuve was a senior member of the Socialist Party before he quit in 2022 in anger over its decision to form an electoral pact with the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI).
The 61-year-old served as prime minister during the final months of socialist Francois Hollande’s presidency.
Before that, he was interior minister, in charge of security during the Charlie Hebdo attack and the Islamist militant assault in Paris on 13 November 2015.
The choice of Mr Cazeneuve would be designed to encourage Socialist politicians to move away from the alliance with LFI, Greens and Communists and to expand a centrist ruling group.
His name had also circulated in the summer as President Macron sought a prime minister following an inconclusive snap election that delivered the current fractured parliament.
In the end, he was passed over for Mr Barnier.
Xavier Bertrand
Xavier Bertrand is a centre-right politician who heads the northern de-industrialised region of Hauts de France, where Mr Macron has sought to develop an ecosystem around electric vehicle batteries.
The 59-year-old served as a minister under the conservative presidencies of Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy and took part in the Republicans’ primary contest ahead of the 2022 presidential election.
Mr Bertrand, a former insurance salesman once nicknamed “floc floc” for the sound his rubber-soled shoes made on parliament’s stone floor, was also among the names that President Macron considered in the summer for the role of prime minister.
Francois Baroin
Francois Baroin is a centre-right career politician, whose father was a student friend of the late president Jacques Chirac.
The 59-year-old served briefly as finance minister, following a stint as budget minister, at the height of Europe’s sovereign debt crisis in 2011-2012.
He was named chairman of Barclays France in 2022.
Mr Baroin has been mayor of Troyes in Champagne since 1995.